Hey, leader, welcome back. Happy you are here. Let me take a deep breath with you. Because I have been rushing all day. I'm now taking a moment for myself with you. I'm inviting you in to do the same. I'm inviting you into the space with me so we can have a deep conversation. Not too deep, but deep enough. A deep conversation about contemplative leadership. Contemplative leadership. My goodness, it even just, it sounds so neat. It's so like, it just rolls off my tongue. It's contemplative leadership. It's the idea that we can integrate our spiritual practice, our spiritual knowing into the leadership space, into showing up in our organizations with this force. It's almost formidable. It's a new energy that you're bringing into your leadership practice because of what you are doing in private. in your contemplative or contemplative way of leading. It comes from Christian mysticism and what we call contemplative prayer. And it's the idea of we're not praying or begging source, God, Christ, universal spirit or consciousness. No, we are in union with this energy and we are in stillness. So it's not about scripture. It's not about religion. It's about the energetic work that you're doing with the higher consciousness. That's what contemplative leadership is. And so it is rooted in Christian mysticism, like I just mentioned. And it's what I learned from many Christian mystics that I've studied, even modern day Christian mystics like Richard Rohr, and a few others that I follow and I've studied. And in integrating my spiritual practice with my leadership practice, I have been able to reconnect with that divine assignment, with that calling. It's like your divine assignment is not mine. Mine is not yours. Yours is not his. We cannot have the same divine assignment. We were made all uniquely individually to to do a very specific mission in our organizations in our nonprofits in our communities or if you're serving your constituents right we were all assigned something very very specific and so for you it may be in the medical industry for her it could be in non-profit non-profit philanthropic work right or somebody else could be in public policy right I happen to follow this space of leadership training and development and research. And so this is my unique space on this planet, you know, and it's my sliver of what I get to do. And so I've answered the call and I answered the call many, many decades ago, two decades ago, over two to almost three decades now. Wow. Wow. I answered that call when I was about fifteen, sixteen years old, when I was part of a program. It was called the Deca Club in high school, and we ran the student store. And one of those requirements to be an active member was to not only work in the student store, but to also work in real life, like have a part time job. And so I worked at Montgomery Ward. Yes. montgomery ward I can't even say that oh my gosh I don't know it's traumatic but I work there uh so that I can meet the requirements of of being in this club and so that's when I learned I had a I had a different calling it wasn't sports it certainly wasn't academics it wasn't um it cheerleading. It wasn't anything else. I was never in AP classes or back then it was called GT classes. I just never was academically above average. I actually flew under the radar for a very long time. But it wasn't until I really enjoyed this organizing and delegating and managing people and things and processes. That's when I realized, oh, work ethic is off the charts. I cannot work anybody here because I love this. I loved it. I love selling Cheetos in the student store. I love selling Scantron sheets. I love it. You remember those Scantron sheets that you'd have to buy for like fifteen cents before one of your classes. Right. Before you took a test. Right. I would sell candy and all kinds of things. And I loved I loved counting the till after and counting my cash and, you know, doing all the bookkeeping. I had so much fun and I had so much fun, too, in the real world working. and getting the check and tying that to my value tying that to my identity and so I remembered that very young and how it brought me to life right because I did fly under the radar for a very long time and you know being a middle child of of a very interesting group of girls I didn't want to be noticed I didn't want to have any attention on me I was just as smart as my older sister and I was just as cute as the younger one, but I just wanted to stay under the radar because I saw how both of them were being treated and sometimes it wasn't that great. And so I remembered coming into my own and blooming into this incredible woman who loved to delegate. I loved time management, loved counting money, loved getting my check every other week and depositing it in my bank account. I had the same bank account all the way into my early twenties. That's how long I stayed with this bank and loved working. I was just such a great worker. And that was my calling. My calling was to work in this capacity of leading. At that time, I was mostly managing and probably micromanaging, but... But I was called and I answered the call. And I knew I answered the call because of how I felt. Because I was finally seen. I saw myself first. And then others were seeing the work ethic that I was bringing into all of these situations. And so... I know then that was my divine assignment. And of course, it has looked very different throughout my career. And just like yours, I'm sure, right? Different capacity, different abilities, different skill sets brought you to all these incredible opportunities. And so here you are now, however. wanting to reconnect to that deeper meaning, that deeper reason why you were called into leadership, because you were born to do this. I see that now. I didn't see that for a long time. My own confirmation bias refused to see that actually there's something more deeper to this than what I was able to see with my own two eyes. And so I... have recently, recently, I mean, you know, the last year or two, I have really changed that perspective and that those of you who were called into leadership are here for a deeper connection and meaning. And so what was that moment for you? I always ask. I always want to know when did you know you were called into leadership? And if you don't, let's take a moment and contemplate when that was. Because what I want to do right here right now is to bring you back into that moment, that realization that you were called to do this work. maybe in the nonprofit space, maybe you are in public office, maybe you're in public policy, maybe you are a professor, maybe you are like me, a CEO and founder, maybe you are a middle manager in a tech organization, maybe you are running your own business. Wherever you are, you were called into leadership. And now let's reflect when that happened for you, just like I shared with you, because that is going to be so important as you move into this second half of your career, because many of us right now are questioning, right? why we're even doing this many of us are saying the money the status the power is just not worth it anymore but I don't think it was it was that I think it was the calling that you had answered but because of the pressure that we leaders are under today because of the noise that we are trying to lead in the distractions the physical exhaustion, the insomnia, all of the variables that are impacting how we're showing up in leadership are now affecting what we want to do in the second half of our career. We're now asking, is there anything more to this? Is there anything better than this? Can we lead in a different way? Is there a better way to do this is the question you're probably asking. Is there a better way to do this? Is there a better way to lead? Because I don't want to leave this organization. I think I can work with this organization. I've been here so long. I don't want to just uproot and start somewhere new. I want to feel reconnected to what I'm doing here. And if I can't change these people and I can't change my staff, What can I do? Can I change myself? Can I change the way I'm looking at the way I am leading? Can I lead in a different way that will bring me more purpose and meaning? So it's taking all of those surface level symptoms that you're asking, that you're experiencing, that you're observing, that you may be feeling in your body, these surface level symptoms. That's what they are. They're symptoms of a deeper rooted problem. right? It's like a disease. You have a disease we don't know about, but you have the symptoms. So you go see a doctor and you say, here are my symptoms, A through Z. What do we do? Well, the doctor says, well, let's do some blood work because we got to go deeper. We have to look a little deeper. We have to excavate some things so that we can figure out what's causing all these symptoms. And so they find a list of things that you may be troubled with. And so that's what I'm calling you into. This is the invitation that I'm offering you today is that we take those symptoms. We go, okay, here are my symptoms. And I want for you to take note of what yours are. For me, because I'm such a physical person, I'm in this physical body, right? For me, it looked like insomnia. It started with losing sleep every night. It started with looking at my day and regretting some of my decisions, regretting how I spoke to some of my staff, regretting how I spoke to a client. I would ruminate over what I should have done differently. How the conversation should have been different. Why I was so angry at this one employee and why I lost my temper with him. Why didn't I do this differently? So for me, it began with rumination before bedtime and then insomnia. Suffered from insomnia for such a long time. And then I started to feel burnt out. And what does that even look like? It looks like exhaustion. It looks like chronic fatigue, which is what the definition is. I believe what burnout is is chronic fatigue. You're just exhausted all the time. You know, some of my clients experience, you know, dysregulated nervous systems are always on fire. They have to put out a fire. So they're always on. The cortisol is jacked. They don't know how to control their thoughts or emotions. They're just on the go, right? And so for some, it may look like that for you. For others, it could be deep sadness. It could be a form of depression. They say depression is looking at the past and ruminating, contemplating, and regretting some things in the past, either through trauma or past memories, which they say cause depression. But then anxiety is fear and worry about the future. You're anxious. You are expecting something negative. So perhaps for you, it's sometimes depression, depending on the context, but maybe other times it's anxiety. uncertain of the future, afraid of how to proceed with a decision. So for me, it was my physical body was screaming at me and telling me there's something off. And I had to really take stock of what those symptoms were because I knew there was something at a deeper level and there was a knowing in me. So when I took the time to be in stillness, when I took the time to pray and to meditate over my future career, what was I going to do in this career? Because I love what I do. I love the institute that we created. I love my staff. I love the clients we serve. But I was ready to just call it quits and just not do anything. I was seriously ready to just say, I'm done. And I can sell this company to whoever wants this, but I can't do this anymore. So I knew that I had to do something. And so it required me to shut up, to be still, and reconnect to why I was even called into this field of study, into this specific industry in the first place. Why did I even answer this call? And if I answered this call because it was assigned to me and not to you and not to him, but assigned to me, then what can I do differently? Because I can't change my clients. I love them, care deeply about them. I'm doing everything I can to help them and their teams and their organizations. But I can't change what's happening in government. I can't change what's happening outside of me. There's no... I can't change anybody. I have no control over that. I can inspire, I can influence, I can impact, which is leadership. But ultimately, that's beyond my control. But I can control how I think about myself, think about this divine assignment, and then how do I proceed so that I can have longevity, so that I can have sustainability, so I can have vitality again. Like I wanted to come back to life, but I didn't want to count on clients to bring me back to life. I didn't want to count on programs or social media or anything outside of here to bring me back to life. I took responsibility for bringing myself back to life. And that looked like being still and asking God for a different way of looking at my divine calling. So number one, you have a divine assignment. Just look at your life. Look at all of the decisions you've made leading up to where you are today. You want to dispute that, please go ahead. I'm the biggest skeptic you will ever meet, for sure. But I just want for you to take a moment and reflect on all those decisions, career decisions, sacrifices, educational pursuits. Accepting those promotions along the way. Answering these calls. There were tiny micro calls that have led you to where you're at today. But take ownership of that because you made those decisions. You may have been inspired or influenced by people, but you ultimately made these decisions and here you are now. So now let's take ownership that we have a divine assignment. That is first and foremost. Once you can agree and accept that you have a very specific assignment, you can now say, okay, if that is true, and I do believe that's true, how can I reconnect, maybe re-energize, maybe reprogram myself with this new identity, right? With this re-energized idea of a divine assignment as I move into this next half of my career. Because I want it to be meaningful. I want to be conscious. I want to be back online. I want to be brought back to life. But I can't count on anyone to do that. So I'm going to take responsibility for that. So that's the reflection that I want for you that I'm inviting you into doing today with me. Is number one. Accepting that you have a divine assignment that's unique to you and to you only because nobody can lead the way you can lead. No one has the neurology, the perspective, the learnings, the skills, the expertise, the mastery that you have. Only you have what was given to you, what you've earned along the way. It's the anointing that's over your life. So here you are now saying, okay, maybe that is true, Denise. Okay, I can believe that. Now, I move into my second half of my career. I want it to be different. How do I make it different? How do I come back to life? How do I find deeper meaning in the work I'm doing today and beyond? That's the reflection. That's what I want for you to take a moment to ask yourself in the stillness, in the meditative practice, in the contemplative leadership practice that I am proposing you do today. Because leader, we need more people like you with this very specific divine assignment, with these very specific gifts and anointings that were given to you, not to me, to you. We need more people like you fully aware, fully online, knowing that you have a deeper connection to why you were called into this leadership role to begin with. I want to remind you ultimately remind you of why you were called into leadership. And contemplative leadership allows us to do that. This is it, contemplative. We are taking a moment to contemplate why we are here. This is what this style of leadership is. can do for you. It can help you find awareness around why you're even here on this planet with this very specific purpose. And then with that awareness and with that energy and with that presence and with that vision, you then get to lead at a whole other level of purpose and meaning. And when you come back online and when you bring yourself back to life, You lead differently. You impact differently. You're the domino. You're the first domino that knocks down all the other dominoes. That's you, the universal leader, the contemplative leader. That's what I want to remind you of today. So take a moment to do this for yourself. And then you're going to join me here every single week so that we can have deeper conversations about what this actually could look like for you contemplative leadership is the new leadership style that no one has seen before but that we are all craving for you are wanting a deeper connection to why you are leading your workforce is desperate or a deeper meaning to their work. Listen, we're all on this planet asking, what is our purpose? Why are we here? What are we doing here? And you have already answered the call to lead. And so I'm just reminding you of this through contemplative leadership. So stick around because you're going to want to learn more and go a little deeper with me into this new style of leadership. Again, that we are calling contemplative leadership. All right, leader. I hope you enjoyed our time together today. I know I did, and I will do this work that I'm asking you to do, that I'm inviting you to do. I do the same work. We're going to do this together, and then we're going to meet back here so that we can continue the conversation. All right, leader. I'm wishing you a fantastic day ahead. Leave your comments, your questions down below. I'll see you soon. Take care.
