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Cultivating an Excellent Mindset: The 5Cs (Competence, Consistency, Courage, Communication & Compass)
567 Plays1 year ago
Join us in this episode as Bukola delves into the transformative power of the 5C's for cultivating an exceptional mindset. We'll navigate Competence, Consistency, Courage, Communication, and Compassion, drawing inspiration from Indra Nooyi's (Former CEO of Pespsico) renowned leadership principles.
In breaking down these principles, Bukola touches on several themes including healthy delusion, being "shameless", getting closer to your source and more.
You can watch the video episode here
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Transcript
Building Confidence and Overcoming Fear
00:00:05
Speaker
Confidence is something that obviously cannot be negotiated. It's something that as a young person, we need to constantly and actively build. If you think these are the reasons why you will fail, then I tell you to drop reasons why you would succeed. Don't be too dogmatic about learning. You never know what you will learn that will land you your next opportunities because sometimes delusion can push you into your destiny.
Introduction to Solo Episode
00:00:31
Speaker
Hi everyone, I hope you're doing very well today. It's another podcast episode and obviously I'm flying solo today. I think I love our solo sessions just because it's a time where I honestly share what I think about in regards to specific topics or answering your dilemmas. It gives me so much joy when I actually just come here alone and share with you
00:00:51
Speaker
what I think about things that I've been pondering on or things that I've been having conversations with my friend about. So in today's podcast episode, I'm going to be talking about something that was referenced in the last episode by our guest Georgia Acquedique.
Insights from Georgia Acquedique
00:01:05
Speaker
And before she wrapped up the episode, she had mentioned three things that helped out to excel and that's helped out on our overall group journey. And these three things were competence, consistency, and communications. And she mentioned a final one just at the end, which is compass.
00:01:20
Speaker
And I thought that was very profound. And I wanted to learn more about the ingredients to being excellent at the things that you're doing, whether you are working at an organization, you're working solo as a digital creator or as an entrepreneur, or you are in school, whatever it is that you're doing, how can you be excellent using these three C's and the additional C that she had given. So I went online to learn more about this and realized that this was something that was first mentioned by Indra
Indra Nooyi's Five C's of Leadership
00:01:48
Speaker
Nooyi.
00:01:48
Speaker
So for those of you who do not know who Indranui is, Indranui used to be a CEO of PepsiCo, which is one of the most remarkable companies in the world. They're the ones behind Pepsi, which I'm sure a couple of you drink every day. If you're drinking Pepsi every day, then there's a problem. You need to check that. But yes, she used to be the CEO of PepsiCo. She's an author of a book called My Life in Full.
The Role of Competence
00:02:09
Speaker
And in 2011, she talked about the five C's of leadership of which she mentioned consistency, competence, communication, compass. And the last one that Georgia didn't mention, which she mentioned is confidence slash courage. And so I was like, okay, the five C's of leadership, but I want to be able to extrapolate this learnings and insight to my audience. I want you guys to learn how
00:02:33
Speaker
you can make use of this in your everyday life and so I decided to transform into the five C's of being excellent in your growth journey and so that's what we're going to be talking about today. Competence, consistency, communication, compass and courage such confidence. In talking about them we'll be looking at why they are relevant and how we can develop them. I think that's the most important thing because everyone says these things but how can you
00:03:01
Speaker
do anything in an actionable way to develop this skill. So let's start with competence, and I'm going to say what Indran Louis thinks this is, and then I'll add my own addition on why it is relevant, like I said, and how you can develop
00:03:15
Speaker
So engineering believes that to excel at whatever you're doing, you must possess a strong set of skills and knowledge in your field, as well as the ability to continuously learn and adapt in order to stay relevant. It seems to be that throughout the season of the podcast, the theme has been around competence.
Developing Confidence and Courage
00:03:31
Speaker
We talked about this in the first episode of the podcast. We also talked about it in Dami Onalaja's episode. And competence is something that obviously cannot be negotiated. It's something that as a young person, we need to constantly and actively build.
00:03:43
Speaker
because what happens is if you want to be the long-term career or something that is sustainable you have to put in the work you cannot rush the process of mastery you cannot rush the process of being competent it requires you to do your own work and take an active approach towards learning what i see these days and as expected in this fast-paced world that we are in
00:04:03
Speaker
is sometimes people trade the process of developing competence with visibility. So it's an either-or for them. So instead of them spending the time and doing the work to be competent, they rather just chase the clout and be visible. And that doesn't help you on the long run because you want a situation whereby you are competent and at the same time your work is being known because you have embraced visibility.
00:04:26
Speaker
But if all your chasing is being visible, putting your personal brand online, and you're not putting in the walk, in the long run, that veil will fall. And when the veil fall, we will see what lies beneath it, which is just empty containers. So as much as possible, as a young person, it's important that that process of competence and building it should not be rushed, need actually be skipped. And so I think this brings us to the question of how do I then build competence? I think generally there are two ways or two lenses to which you can view building competence.
00:04:56
Speaker
So there's a general competence lens and a specific competence lens. So what does this mean? It means that, especially for people who don't know what they want to do. And I know a lot of young people when you're in the university, although you might be taking a course, maybe you're studying law, that might not be what you want to do at the end of the day. So you're still at that phase of trying to understand what exactly you like to do long run.
00:05:17
Speaker
In that case, you may not necessarily need to build specific competence in the legal field. So what you need to do is to look at, okay, what kind of general competence can I build? And general competence could be anything around communication, public speaking, time management, all of these other things that are more like the softer skills that can help you to excel at whatever you're doing.
00:05:37
Speaker
So what I would say is if you are the early face of your career or the early stage in terms of your group process, it's important that you build the skill of general competence as opposed to looking at something specific. Maybe on the other spectrum where you have a clear understanding of what exactly it is you want to do when you're
00:05:56
Speaker
outside of the university, then you can start picking up some specific competency in the areas that you're interested in. Well, even though you are still going to be building specific competency, for instance, if you want to be a videographer, you're actually learning how to use the cameras, how to edit and all of that jazz, you still need to build general competence. Because if I call you, I being your clients to help cover maybe my wedding, yes, you're into videography, but your people management has to be on point. You need to be able to cheer me up. You need to have a good relationship management skill.
00:06:25
Speaker
So it's important that in building our competence, we're not so to no vision about, okay, it's law that I am doing. And so all that I need to know is all of the vernacular of the legal profession, you still need to build a softer skills and build that general competence on the long run. Another thing that can help is really just understanding that the process of building competence is not a thing that can be rushed. It's not a thing that you can just do in one day and say, yes, I am competent. Mastery takes a long,
00:06:49
Speaker
long long time you need to give it time you need to water it just like a seed that you put in the ground it would not bring out fruits on the first day it needs to go into the ground it needs to be watered it needs to be cared for and then you start sprouting out and even from that it would still continue to
00:07:05
Speaker
grow until it gets to the stage of bearing fruits. So just take your journey, your competency journey, just like you see that it's spouting out of the ground and blooming into something beautiful that bears fruits. So it takes time, but understand that that process cannot be rushed. And so if you are at that phase where you're trying to build a certain level of competence, at first it might seem uncomfortable. You might even feel like you're a stupid person because you learned this thing today and then tomorrow you're required to take action on it and you don't even know what you had learned yesterday.
00:07:35
Speaker
it's part of the process it's normal don't feel like or because you've learned this thing today that it means you have to see it and be a one in it. Even if you hit a roadblock the next day just continue to persist that's it so competence is something that you have to persist that you have to give time to you have to work at the end of the day when you look back you realize that.
00:07:55
Speaker
oh my god, so I have this level of knowledge, I have this level of competence and I didn't know, I was just taking my time to learn and build and this is where it has gotten me. So it's just very important as young people that we give it time. And the final thing that I will say on topic of competence is the fact that we need to be open to learning. I think the only way that we can build and expand our level of competency is if we're open to learning new things, you know, taking each day as a school day
00:08:25
Speaker
Don't be so close-minded that you think that all certain things are not for you. You shouldn't be developing those skills. If you think that these are skills that can actually get me to the next phase of my journey, then don't close yourself off from learning. Don't be too dogmatic about learning. You never know what you will learn that will land you your next opportunity. So maintain that open mindset towards learning and that will help you in the process of competence.
Overcoming Fear and Shame
00:08:46
Speaker
I hope that helps. So move on to the second one.
00:08:49
Speaker
So going back to what Indra has said on confidence and courage, she emphasized the importance of courage and confidence in your growth process. She believes that you must have the courage to make tough decisions and take risks to achieve success and must also have confidence in your abilities. I think that last bit is so important. Also have confidence in your abilities.
00:09:11
Speaker
I'm just going to reflect one of the quotes that I posted on my Instagram, which is, if you're waiting for someone to save you, let me just bust your bubble now. No one is coming to save you. You are your earthly savior. And with an understanding of that, it means that you have to stop shrinking and you have to start taking spaces.
00:09:30
Speaker
because nobody is going to give you the thing that you think you need. You have to actively and scrappily get it yourself. That's the way life works. And I remember my mentor just telling me when I first met her that, do you think anyone who has access, authority or power or influence in anything
00:09:46
Speaker
will come and meet you and tell you that, oh, I see that you need some influence. I see that you need some access. Take some of my own. No, people who have placed an advantage or a privilege or who have worked for whatever it is that they have worked for, they're not just going to hand those things over to you. You have to build the courage and confidence to position yourself as a person that deserves that thing. And that works in every spectrum. I think it's very important that we understand that the way we carry ourselves and that comes through with how bold we are.
00:10:14
Speaker
how we're using our voice, how we're speaking up, how confident we are. The way we do all of these things determines how other people are going to interact with us. And so it starts with you, it starts with you exuding confidence and being courageous and saying that I'm going to take up spaces in whatever it is that I am doing professionally, personally, whatever it is that you want to be excellent at, you have to show up, you have to show up, you have to take up those spaces and not think that someone is just going to hand it over to you.
00:10:39
Speaker
And obviously, like this is not something that is an easy process. And that's why I'm going to later on touch on how we can develop confidence and courage, of which I'll say I'm probably not an expert in but over the years developing my own courage and confidence kind of helps me to be able to share my thoughts with you.
00:10:56
Speaker
So another thing I want to mention before I go on to that is, I remember just having a conversation with my friend on how people don't take chances on themselves. And I was just talking on and on and just didn't understand it. And she told me, Bokala, do you realize that a lot of people do not trust themselves? Like it might be so great or whatever it is that you're doing, but they don't trust themselves enough to make those decisions. So it's important that as young people, as we're developing the skills, as we're thriving and growing and we're building whatever it is that we are building, we need to look back and say,
00:11:26
Speaker
i actually have the capacity i actually have the ability and when you have no trust in yourself you will not be confident in your abilities you will not be courageous to use your voice the essence of this is that in whatever it is that we are doing confidence and courage is what will set the tone for our development and our group process is what will build us up it is what will make us excellent at whatever it is that we are doing
00:11:47
Speaker
It's what will
Mastering Communication Skills
00:11:48
Speaker
make us know. It's what will get people to see and recognize us and have confidence in us because there's actually no way that you can convince people that you are capable if you do not exceed confidence. Confidence is that magnet that attracts people to see you and understand the value that you bring to the table. So it's important that young people were striving and building ourselves in the area of confidence and courage. And so I'll now go on to how we can view this. Stay with me.
00:12:14
Speaker
I think the first thing in understanding how to develop confidence is having a mindset shift. And for many people like me, and okay, let me just give myself as the guinea pig. When I was younger, I actually thought that confidence was something that you had or you didn't. So it's something that was innately imbued in you when you came into the world. And if you're confident or if you're courageous, you're confident or courageous. And if you're not, you're not. So I had carried that mindset with me all through my time. Even up until the university, I just felt like, okay,
00:12:43
Speaker
I'm not confident at this thing, and so let me just not go there. Even though I knew that that thing, which is public speaking, which I'll talk about pretty much soon, I knew that that thing was going to be the key to unlock my destiny about, say, all my goals or my future. I knew that public speaking was that thing that I needed. And it's the thing that a lot of us need. Everybody needs to be great at speaking and communication. And so I was like, well, it's not for me. So I'd rather not do it. Maybe when I want to communicate, I'd rather do that via text and whatever.
00:13:12
Speaker
and only until i had been done with university and i started going on my own journey of growth did i realize that i needed to build the skill of being able to speak in public and not being nervous and anxious of which you know sometimes it still comes i needed to build that skill and to be able to build that skill i needed confidence to help me with it and going through that journey was what made me realize that you can actually build confidence
00:13:35
Speaker
And this is not even mere just saying from my experience. I'm currently taking a program in organizational psychology and one of my models is on leadership and management. And we discussed and analyzed how leaders can build confidence. I don't know if I've been saying competence. If I've been saying competence in this section, please just know it's confidence. So on how leaders can build courage and confidence,
00:13:55
Speaker
and how it ultimately helps their team, performance, productivity and all that jazz. So if you have been like me and have thought that confidence or courage is something that is in views and I'll tell you to remove that thought entirely because you just as anyone else can view the skill of confidence.
00:14:13
Speaker
do your own reflection work and ask yourself what area am I not confident or courageous in. I think ultimately we're not just all not confident or not courageous people, they're just specific areas that we are shy about or specific areas that kind of gives us anxiety or the nerves and so write that down like okay what am I not confident in, I'm not confident in public speaking, I'm not confident in putting my work out there, whatever it is just write it down.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then in writing it down, then you can know how and what steps to take to develop these things. And just like I've mentioned earlier, to build your confidence or your courage in doing anything, you need to trust yourself first and trusting yourself. Honestly, I know that it's not an easy thing. It takes work.
00:14:56
Speaker
It takes a lot of work to be anything on your journey or to be anything in this world, to be excellent at anything. It takes work. It takes trial and error. It takes days of questioning yourself and asking if you're a dumb, dumb, dumb human being. And sometimes things are on the upside, sometimes things are on the downside. So it takes a lot of work, but that mindset shift is important and also
00:15:20
Speaker
narrowing down on what exactly it is that makes you lack confidence or courage is just kind of the starting process. Then one thing that has also helped me is realizing that I cannot always look at the world or look at things from a mindset of failure because failure is really what holds us back. When we immediately just say, oh, you know, I'm going to feel like this thing. Oh, they're going to reject me. You don't have the confidence to make that application that you want to make because you're already internalizing failure.
00:15:47
Speaker
you're already projecting failure into your future because you think that oh this isn't for me you're already discounting yourself so it's important that stop looking or even conjuring because sometimes not even looking is conjuring stop conjuring reasons why you will fail if you think these are the reasons why you will fail then i tell you to drop reasons why you would succeed because there are reasons why you will succeed and if you're able to draw up those things it puts you in a much better state to go for any of the opportunities that you want
00:16:16
Speaker
Like my friend will always tell me, because sometimes we need to maintain a healthy dose of delusion. Because to actually achieve many things in this world these days, you need that level of delusion, that level of, I can't do this. Even though you don't meet all of the basic requirements. And trust me, I have sat down with many professionals, many people who are believing in their fields. The last episode I had with Georgia, she mentioned that
00:16:41
Speaker
For Amazon, the company that she's currently a director of operations at, when she heard about the program that got her into Amazon, they had said that they were looking for MBA students. And she wasn't an MBA student, she was taking a master's, not an MBA, MBA is a different trajectory. She was taking a master's in international accounting.
00:16:58
Speaker
And that in itself automatically meant that she did not meet the requirements. But did she try? Did she maintain a healthy delusion? Yes, she did. And so one thing that I would like to empower you with today is to start maintaining a healthy delusion because sometimes delusion can push you into your destiny. It can push you into the future that you have envisioned for yourself. And I'm not saying that things will always be perfect or if you are maintaining an optimistic mindset, it means that things will always work out for you.
00:17:26
Speaker
People get rejections, people get L's like, don't look where's episode. I just keep referencing people's episodes. Don't look where that does episode. She said, everybody would chop L's, right? Nobody is special. You will win some, you will lose some.
00:17:42
Speaker
it's part of life but if you're always discounting yourself from opportunities just because you're focusing on the failures and you're not trusting yourself enough you don't have the courage you don't have the confidence that is required for you to push past all of these things then there's no way you can grow there's no way you can be excellent and there's no way you can thrive
00:18:02
Speaker
I think I've said a lot in regards to confidence and courage, but one last thing I want to say is, for you to be courageous and be confident, you need to throw shame in the bin. Like, you need to look at shame in the eye and throw it in the trash can. Because one thing that keeps a lot of us young people and holds us back from anything that we want to achieve is shame. So we're thinking about what would people say?
00:18:25
Speaker
What would people say if they see me post online? What would people say if they see me do X and Y? You have to throw shame in the bin. And when you're able to throw shame in the bin, you build the courage that you need to grow. You build the confidence that you need to excel. And you're able to learn and maintain a mindset of being open to feedback.
00:18:42
Speaker
Because you don't have any shame in that sense, you're open to seeing better ways of doing the things that you're doing. So true shame in the being. Don't let shame be the thing that will hold you back. I know I've said a lot in terms of confidence and courage, but obviously there's so many things that you can take from that. And we'll move on to the third one now. What does Indra Nui think? Nui believes in the importance of communication to excel.
00:19:05
Speaker
So it means clear articulation and active listening. The power of your words, the power of your expressions, the power of how you're able to put your thoughts into words, whether orally or in writing, that power cannot be underestimated. The moment I realized that it became a game changer, it became a game changer for me. And one thing I'll tell you to do is look around you, look on social media,
00:19:29
Speaker
or in your class or wherever you are and see the people that actually thrive and excel added great communicators yes or no added greater communicating yes or no you find that most of the time let's just put it if you go it's five percent of the time they are actually greater communicating
00:19:46
Speaker
wherever you are, you need to level up your communication. It's so important. It really is important. And it's just like public speaking, which obviously is one of the arms of communication. Just like public speaking, I thought that communicating well properly, eloquently, articulately, was something that just a select group of people could do. I just thought that that was the case. But the truth is, you can learn how to communicate. And the moment I saw how vital communication was in
00:20:15
Speaker
everything that I was doing professionally at work, I needed to communicate effectively in your relationships. Whether I be with your friends, with your significant other, communicating effectively matters. You don't want to say A and then they're thinking that even though sometimes they tend to think that even
00:20:31
Speaker
when we are clear and communicating in an articulate way, they still tend to think that, but you want to try as much as possible to eloquently be able to express yourself. Say the things that you want to say in a way that the other person gets you. It's so important. I don't know why I'm saying this so seriously, but it really is important. It really is important. I think for you to thrive, for you to grow, for you to excel, you need to improve your communication.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I like the way Indranui explained communication. She didn't just talk about articulating yourself properly. She also talked about listening actively. I think that's the other leg that a lot of people miss. So a lot of people included myself.
00:21:08
Speaker
While we would like to hear the sound of our own voices, yeah, we need to give other people room to speak as well. And not only that, we need to listen to them intently and listen not to respond, but listen so you can understand their perspective. And one person, one person, one icon that I think is so great at communicating in terms of listening and even just articulating himself is Trevor Noah.
00:21:31
Speaker
Go on YouTube and watch everyone speak. Go on YouTube by watching interview people. You see what I'm saying? It is so good. And this takes me to what you can do to develop yourself in terms of communication. So the first thing on this one, and just like I mentioned earlier, is erase the idea that communication is for a select few and you are not one of the few that can communicate effectively.
00:21:53
Speaker
Even though you didn't grow up learning how to communicate your thoughts in a way that other people can understand you succinctly, it's still a skill that can be built and so walk on that journey of building the skills. How can you build the skills? You can build it by reading books. Reading books, even just for the sake of learning new words, is a thing. Many of the books that I read these days is for the sole purpose of learning new words.
00:22:13
Speaker
Thankfully, and I just appreciate my friends so much, on my birthday, they got me a Kindle. And so on Kindle, it's just easy for me to highlight words. And now I have a bank of so many words that I have learned over time and I can always go back to to refresh my memory. And so it's important that you read books, learn new words, and not just learn actively use these words. I find that many times our writing words are more robust than our speaking words.
00:22:39
Speaker
And the reason is because for writing, you get time to process and think and you're able to put together everything succinctly. But when you have to speak, you can't be talking to me and then maybe you're like, hi, bucola.
00:22:52
Speaker
which is something that you do when you're writing high vocal locking. Should I say, I hope you're doing well, or should I say, I trust you're doing well? You just have to say it's when you're speaking. So that's why it seems to look like you're writing words are more robust. But I realized that when you actively engage the words that you have learned by speaking them, by using those words, it helps to make your bank of words more robust. It helps to build your lexicon and your vocabulary. And that's so important.
00:23:20
Speaker
I think another way that you can then be able to actively use these words is by having a safe person, someone that can help you create the no judgment place where you're able to use your words. For me, it's my partner. And so I just many times would say words and it's like, that's not the right word to use in this situation. You know that right? And I'm like, okay.
00:23:42
Speaker
word that is the word I'm supposed to use. And I actively just go on and find that word and add it to my vocabulary bank. And so that helps. And sometimes I just find that I use the right words and it's like, okay, that's great, amazing. So it's important that you have that space in a person, maybe your sister, your friend, whatever person that be, a place where you will not feel uncomfortable and you know that you will be judged for using the wrong words.
Consistency and Personal Growth
00:24:06
Speaker
Don't use social media for that because those people are quick. If you write the wrong thing or you say the wrong thing, they would call you out.
00:24:13
Speaker
They will call you, so obviously that can obviously be a safe space, you get that. And I also think that when we talk about communication, I'm not saying you have to entirely change your accent, except that is something that you want to do. And if you want to change your accent, it's completely fine. If that's what you want to do and you think that would help you in whatever it is that you're doing, then you can. But for me, it's not really about the accent, but in the way you are clearly speaking.
00:24:36
Speaker
So when I say something, can people understand what I am saying? Am I clear enough? Am I pacing my words? Am I using the rights, depths, and pitches, and modulations? How am I speaking? So for me, that's the important thing. It's not really about, oh, H-factor, whatever. I am a Yoruba girl. As much as I try to avoid my H-factor, it will always come, even though very subtly, it would still come. So that's really not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about clearly communicating and all of that jazz.
00:25:05
Speaker
I think one thing that can also help you communicate as well is to consume really good speeches. So you'll find a lot of this on YouTube, you'll find a lot of this on podcasts. So like listen to good quality speeches, places where you know that if I listen to people that speak eloquently, obviously it doesn't know the only information or entertainment or whatever it be that you should consume. But taking time out of your data, actually look at how other people speak matters. So you could watch maybe clips of Jim Amanda speaking, because she's obviously a very good example for this.
00:25:35
Speaker
pressure of the discussion. She's someone that speaks very well. So you could listen to her speak and take note of how she speaks, the way she excuse herself, not only the ones that are being used, but even in the way that she's saying it, even in our body language. Look at all of those things and it would help you with developing your communication. Lastly, it's not just about your speech, it's not just about your writing. And I don't think I mentioned writing enough. Writing is also important. So
00:25:59
Speaker
How are you writing emails? Is it error free or do you have a lot of errors? You know, when you put it on a Word document, do we see all of the red wiggly marks or it's clean and clear? I think it's important that we, when we're having professional communications and it doesn't start with professional communications. It starts with the very smaller
00:26:17
Speaker
informal communications that we have with our friends, how are we typing? And that translates into the way we type professionally. Perfectly read what you've written over and over again. For me, I know that I'm very prone to writing things and when I post it, I'll see errors. So I have grammar that just helps me out with this thing. So whatever can help you to best be able to communicate is important.
00:26:39
Speaker
So move on to the fourth item, which is consistency. And for Indra Nooyi, she believes that to be excellent, you must be consistent in your actions, decisions, and communications. So I'm going to be talking about why this is relevant and how you can build the skill of consistency. So with consistency, there are just several layers to it that I'm definitely going to be appealing.
00:26:58
Speaker
And I think the first layer is understanding that consistency is what helps you to perfect your craft. So if, for instance, you're learning public speaking or videography, your first public speaking endeavor, your first time doing your videography, it's not going to be your best one. It's definitely not going to be your best one. And if it is your best, then it means that you have not grown.
00:27:17
Speaker
And so consistency for me is what helps you to build that mastery. If you consistently do something, you understand what ways to make those things better. That's the way I see consistency on one layer. There's also the general layer of consistency, which a lot of people proliferate. And for me, I don't think that's the way to think about it in actual terms. And that's keep doing things one day. What you've done will go viral.
00:27:43
Speaker
And obviously, it's the truth. Keep doing things one day where you've gone, go viral. A lot of times when you think about consistency in that sense, you would be focusing on the virality as opposed to the perfection of your craft, which I mentioned earlier.
00:27:58
Speaker
And what then that means is, if you're not seeing growth, if you're not seeing likes and comments and followings and all of that jazz, you get weakened and defeated because your eyes are on the virality piece. And so you feel like consistency is just, I wake up in the morning, I have to do this. And you just keep doing this. You're not even improving anything. You're just doing it hoping that one day things will kick off. And it might kick off, it might not kick off, but it's just not the right mindset to go about with consistency.
00:28:26
Speaker
I think consistency helps you build data. It helps you build insights. So I'll just give myself as an example. For the past two years, I have been hosting the growth podcast with Veronica. And we have been on this journey of gradients working with young people, helping them to develop these skills and the confidence that they need to go on their own journey. We've been doing this since way back.
00:28:47
Speaker
And I tell you that the way I had been doing things year one is different from the way that I'm doing things now. And it's clear it's visible. People can say, this is not something that I am loading myself on or giving myself an award for. It is clear. And so that's the way to see consistency. It's, okay, I did it this way. And maybe I need to do some tweaks based on this data. And before you know, you keep improving and that gets you what you want. That gets you what you want. If what you want is very little grades.
00:29:13
Speaker
If what you want is making an impact, making a tangible impact in people's lives, that will get you there. But the importance is just understanding that when you're consistent at things, you get to improve, you look at your data, you see the tweaks and detour that you need to take to achieve better outcomes. And before you know it, you look back, you become a master at the thing that you
00:29:34
Speaker
we're doing consistently. So how do you develop consistency? A lot of people ask this question they're like oh my god I just cannot and I think it's okay. I don't think consistency means allowing the thing that you've said you want to do to impact people or whatever it may be to then control you to a point where you feel locked caged and stifled. I don't think that's the idea of consistency. I think when you need to take a break, do take a break. I also think you need to have a healthy sense of working and
00:30:03
Speaker
in seagracing the things that you're doing so that you don't get to a place of burnout and as much as this is a very easy thing to say it's not that easy and I get it but one thing that I would say which is the first thing that I think can help you is maintaining and fulfilling the promise that you make to yourself it's hard like it's hard to be consistent or anything it's hard to be disciplined because discipline is also interconnected with consistency it's so hard to do any of these things but
00:30:32
Speaker
When you maintain the promise that you've made to yourself, when you take that approach and you maintain that mindset of fulfilling the promise that you've made to yourself, you'll be confident, at least for me. If I've said I'm going to do something and I don't do it, I just feel like I have disappointed myself and that's not the best feeling in the world. That's not the best feeling and so that's one thing that has helped me to be consistent. Obviously, there are so many other specific things that you can do of which I've recorded in previous episodes but that's one thing that gets you to be consistent. You have to look at the long-term picture
00:31:01
Speaker
of what that thing is going to help you with. To get consistent, you have to look at the long-term picture of what that thing is going to help you with. And that's why I said earlier that having the right mindset is important. If the reason you're doing it is because you want to have a thousand 300 likes or you want to have a hundred thousand one million likes, then you'll be frustrated in the long run. But if the thing
00:31:22
Speaker
which is the reason behind why you're doing the thing you're doing is about impact or something that is more aligned with principles and values that make sense to you, then you would still give to it, you still pour to it. So really think about what can help you to be motivated to do the things that you have promised yourself that you're going to do, and that should help you to be consistent.
00:31:43
Speaker
Again I understand that I am saying words and sometimes these words are not even things that I adopt fully but this is a message to myself as well in terms of consistency and even though I cannot tell you that I have 100% ticked off the things that I want to be consistent at but I am better than yesterday, I am better than where I used to be and this has helped me to improve, to grow, to thrive and so just be more appointed in myself.
Finding Your Personal Compass
00:32:07
Speaker
I said appointed because... Disappointed. You get it. I hope you did. Because I'll now look like a clown if you didn't.
00:32:17
Speaker
So this takes us to the final one, which is on Compass. I'm glad I'm on the final one. I'm going to wrap up very quickly. So stay with me. What has Indra Nui said about Compass? She said, we Compass, this refers to having integrity, having a set of values and principles that guides a leader's actions and decisions. Georgia, when I was on the call with her, explained it as having a not staff. Where do you see yourself long term and then walk backwards from there?
00:32:45
Speaker
Now, for those who have clarity about what they want to do long term, and I mean, I know that there's so many people like that, there's so many people who fall into the school who have been very clear and very tunnel visioned about the things that they want to do. But for the most part, a lot of people do not fall underneath that school. And so for the very clear people, it's easy for them to understand what they are not start is and then be able to work backwards from that.
00:33:10
Speaker
But for those of us who are on the other side of the spectrum, the question is, can there be a not stop? And I'm just going to share what has worked for me. It's something that I've pondered on. It's something that I have had conversations with people on. And I think it's clear. So if you find that there's a little bit of non-clarity,
00:33:28
Speaker
about what exactly you want to be doing in 20 years, or you're someone who is just a multi-potentialized and you have a robust set of skills and you want to explore all of your possibilities, then I think this is something that you can do. Instead of having specific plans and ideas of what that vision is, it's important to make it a lot more flexible and robust. I'll give an example.
00:33:55
Speaker
Instead of thinking about, okay, my not star is being an MD at maybe Citibank in the next 15 years. That's so specific and so rigid. That can never be me. I would say, oh, I want to be a great leader. I want to be a great leader that is transformational and charismatic in my leadership at Purge. I want to be able to impact lies and touch the people who I am given the opportunity to lead.
00:34:17
Speaker
So that, for me, is grand. And I might not be doing it in the capacity as an MD at Citibank. I might be doing it in whatever capacity. But at least that in itself embeds the values and the things that matter to me and the things that if I'm doing, I'll feel fulfilled regardless of the face or the
00:34:33
Speaker
dress it is wearing. It doesn't have to be wearing the dress of an MD at Citibank. Again, I don't know why I mentioned that company. But it doesn't have to wear the dress of anything specific. It can come in any color. But as long as I am doing those things in the way that I've said it, I will feel fulfilled. So I think that helps for people who aren't exactly clear about these things. And so that can in itself be your not star.
00:34:54
Speaker
And I'm sure this comes with a question or even the thought around, but I don't even have a bigger flexible vision of anything. I don't even know anything. And I cannot answer that question if I'm being very honest with you. If I tell you that I have an answer to that, I am lying, take me to court, sue me, I'm lying.
00:35:11
Speaker
And so what I will tell you is get closer to God and keep praying to God, tell God to show you in different ways what the vision He has written for you is. It's in the Bible, you know, before I brought you forth, before you were conceived, I knew you, I had a plan for you, all of the beautiful things. There's so many things in the Bible that talks about your calling, your purpose, your vision, all of those things. And I'm sure not just in the Bible, even in other realms of spirituality,
00:35:37
Speaker
you'd see the importance of calling and of purpose and vision and all of these beautiful things. And so draw closer to your source.
00:35:47
Speaker
Whatever your source is, mine is God. So draw closer to your source and ask that your source shows you whatever it is that your vision is. And I think as the day just goes on, things become clearer. And I always just see my life or things that I should be doing or my bigger vision, whatever it is that we would call it now. I see it like a Lego block. So a Lego block, you are first able to build your foundations.
00:36:12
Speaker
And like I mentioned earlier, the foundation can be something very flexible, something like, oh, I want to be this kind of leader. I want to have this kind of impact. I want to have this kind of influence, whatever it may be, in a very flexible and robust way.
00:36:25
Speaker
Then once I have that foundation and that baseline, as things become clearer based on the clarity that gives me or the things that I'm able to pick from my environment, the skills that I continue to build, whatever it is, I'm able to continue to build that block to keep building it up once it becomes such a beautiful mansion and castle. And when I look back at how the journey has been,
00:36:45
Speaker
I realized that, oh, this was a beautiful one. And it took me to have a solid foundation in good baseline that aligns with me, which again, I said, if you don't know that, you need to draw closer to your source and learn about what that should be, and then continue to build upon it. And just, it helps you with your compass. I hope this really helps someone. This is something that I always just think about. And I know a lot of young people have questions about purpose, calling, whatever. And it might sound woo woo and bladder bash, but this has honestly been
00:37:14
Speaker
how i have been guided and this is something that i genuinely love to have conversations about and that person that you can call today and you'd say let's talk about life and i'm like yes let's do that because those are the kind of conversations i love to have very deep conversations like we've just had today
Conclusion and Reflections
00:37:30
Speaker
And so that brings us to the end of the five C's. And I hope that you've been able to take a lot. And even if you've not taken everything, like I always say, don't take everything you hear, even from me as gospel. There are things that might not be applicable to you from the things that I have said. So feel that the things that I have said and take the one that you need.
00:37:48
Speaker
take the one that aligns with you. And so I'm going to sign out now, but I hope you do enjoy your day or your nights, depending on when you're listening to this podcast episode. I hope this brings clarity to your group journey and you catch me on another one. Bye.