Leader, if your title is heavy and your soul is tired, you're in the right place. This show is for the burnt out leader who feels spiritually disconnected and trapped in outdated toxic leadership models. Let me help you restore your presence, your peace, and your purpose with grounded strategies and soul rooted wisdom so you can lead your people with confidence, compassion, and conviction. I am your host and guide, Dr. Denise Simpson. Join me now so we can integrate spirit, science, and strategy. Hi, welcome back leader. I am feeling a little bittersweet right now because I am wrapping up season two of this show very soon. We have this episode and one more before we take a wrap. We wrap it up, put a bow on it, and then ship it out. Although we've been shipping this every single week. Seth Godin likes to call that shipping your work. But it's time for a little break. I do seventeen episodes per season. And so it's just good to have a number to commit to and then wrap it up. And then take a break so that I can decompress, relax a little bit, focus on something else for just a moment. But more importantly, to recommit. Because I made a decision to publish this show every single week. I made a decision to support you, my leader who is out there doing the work. Some of us are confused, exhausted, overwhelmed. Some of us are in pain right now. Some of us are in deep suffering. And I made a decision that this show is dedicated to you. Every single episode is to serve someone out here and to help them be a better, more connected, integrated leader. So I made that decision a long time ago. But I have to recommit to that decision. It's not a decision that's made and then you're like, yep, one and done, let's go. I mean, it's forever decided upon. No, I have to recommit with my whole heart, with my whole spirit, with my whole body, okay? So I need time to detach, to disconnect, to decompress so that I can come back recommitted to this mission. I have convictions, my friends, and they're strong and they're powerful and they could fuel a movement, but I need some rest time. This is how we avoid burnout. This is how we avoid overwhelm. This is my trick. It is where I make a decision and then keep recommitting to it, but then also taking some disconnected time so that I can come back refueled. and reignited in helping you out here. So, Two more episodes. We'll wrap this up, take a break, and then come back for season three. I'm so excited. I'm so excited about season three. I have so many ideas, but I'm telling my brain, relax. You're going to need some time to just detach, disconnect, and then do some brainstorming, and then get in there for season three. So hang tight, my friends. So much is still to come. But for now, I want to talk to you about your calling. Calling versus climbing. Two different leadership paths. So many of us have been climbing. We've been running up that summit, right? Once we reach summit, it's like, okay, I'm here, plant my flag. And then you go, you know, because you're at a higher level, you're like, oh, there's another one over there. I'm going to go climb that mountain. Oh, let me go summit that one. And then you finally get to that mountain. You then put your flag in that place. level. And then you look, look, look about, you look yonder and you're like, Oh, there's another one over there. Okay. I'm going to go that way. So you're climbing, climbing, climbing, achieving because you have so much ambition. Oh, it's intoxicating. Listen, I'm a, I'm a very ambitious girl. Okay. I mean, I climb and climb and climb and climb. But I'm at a point in my career where I'm like, okay, I've seen various mountaintops. They're pretty great. But, you know, the higher I go, the less oxygen I can have. Also up here. Oh, not a lot of people are up here with me. Yikes. Plus something very important about climbing these mountains. They weren't easy. the journey was painful. So if the journey is painful, what makes you think the top is going to be fulfilling? If the journey was painful, that achievement is not going to be all it's cracked up to be. It's not going to be everything that you thought it was going to be or do for you. How many times have you achieved something that And the journey was hella hard, okay? That was not easy. You lost some people along the way. You lost some relationships. You wound up in bankruptcy. You wound up losing some very important relationships. You may have gotten divorced along the way, right? Those journeys of hardship. Once you got to the top of that mountain and you lost everybody along the way, and then you ask yourself, was that worth it? Was that at all worth it? Hell no. There's so many times that I can think of that. I've experienced, like I said, a lot of mountaintops. I have seen elevated landscapes. I've done a lot. And a lot that I would have done differently. Now that I know what I know... I'm going to do things differently moving forward. But had I known this, would I have achieved all that? Probably not. Probably not. So I say this because it's time that we ask ourselves, are we answering the call that There is a call versus the climb. The call versus the climb. Are you climbing because you're being pulled by your ego, by performance, by self-limiting beliefs, by having to prove that you're worthy to others? Or are you living someone else's dream? So I'm being pulled into this mountain again. Go like mama said. Or because I have to go prove this guy wrong because he told me I'd never make it in this industry. Oh, well, now I got to go prove this other person wrong. So are you climbing for other people? Are you climbing to prove to others outside of you? There is a difference. The climb is for others. The calling is for you. One of our principles in contemplative leadership is the divine assignment that was put on you. You, you, your divine assignment is not mine. Mine is not his, his is not theirs. Your divine assignment, your divine assignment could be one general thing, but then you get to move into different industries or different areas with this divine assignment. So it's an umbrella call. But then you get to manifest it and demonstrate it in various aspects of your life. It's not like one thing and then you can never move from that one thing. No, the divine calling is a calling on your life. That's internal. That has nothing to do with external circumstances. Call versus climb. I want us to answer these questions truthfully. This latest achievement, this latest climb, maybe you're on it now. Maybe you haven't put the flag at the top of that mountain yet, but you're getting there. I don't want to discourage you because you've gone this far, but I just want for you to find awareness around the climb that you're on right now. Is it for other people? Or is it for you? Is it part of your calling? And if you say to me, actually, Denise, this is all external. This has nothing to do with my calling. Then okay, you get to decide. Do I want to finish this climb because I've come this far? Maybe I should. And then maybe I do, I continue the climb, but I change the narrative moving forward. I tie it to my calling so that that's not in vain. All that suffering and pain is not in vain. Maybe I just change my perspective slightly. So that when I land at the top of that mountain and I've got my flag, I'm going to plant it proudly. I'm going to plant it in full integration with my spirit, in full integration with my divine assignment, my calling. See, I wish someone would have told me that after every climb that I've had. I had to learn this the hard way. It's like, what? Why didn't anyone tell me that I could actually tie my These mountaintops to my calling. Well, guess what? I've gone back in my memory and I have now changed the story for myself. I've changed it. to be tied and correlated to my divine assignment. And it feels so different now. I now get to see these mountaintops and all the climbs that I've taken initially for others to prove to others. I've now taken those achievements as a direct correlation to my divine assignment. Things have changed. I have changed. I talk freely about the pain and suffering that I endured on those climbs, but I also get to talk about how I've changed the narrative in my mind, how I now tell a different story. Yeah, I did all that work for others, but now at this point in my career, I get to change the story. And now how fulfilled am I? All because of this realization. There is a calling and there is the climb to different leadership paths. So if you think, oh, it's too late, Denise, I've had lots of success and I did it for everybody else and I'm miserable AF. I'm so miserable. No, my friend, no. We get to look at those experiences and now tie it back to the calling. You get to change that in your mind. You don't get to sit on that. Change the story. Isn't that powerful? You get to change that. by a simple insight, by something so simple as this. So I talk about this because all of my clients are highly ambitious humans. I mean, they're off the charts ambitious and successful. They want more. They can do more. They're excited for more. The desires in them are Wow. Palpable. When I talk to them and I have a coaching call with them, I'm like, Oh, tell me more. Cause I'm what? Like some I'm overheated here. Y'all like what? Tell me more. It is so intoxicating to see someone so intoxicated with their potential. Oh, those are my favorite humans. My goodness. So the reminder for them and for those of you out here, The call versus the climb to different leadership paths. Which path are you on now? And if you're telling me, well, I'm on the climb. I'm on that leadership path. Well, then change it. Change the story you're telling yourself. Connect it back to your calling. make it mean something important. Make it mean something about your impact and your legacy. Make it mean something about your purpose on this planet. Please make it mean something important to you and to those that you serve. We have enough misguided, disconnected people Leaders out here doing things for others, for people pleasing, for performance purposes. They have disconnected themselves from their souls, from their spirit, from their divine assignments. This is why we see such dangerous, toxic, antiquated leaders in our country, in our organizations and around the world. because they have been disconnected from their spirit. They're fragmented. They're not whole or integrated. They don't take their spirituality into the workplace, or at least they think they don't. They're compartmentalizing a very important part of who they are. And sometimes leaders, and this is what's interesting, I see leaders experiencing some very personal, tragic, familial problems. And it takes that. It takes crisis to get them back into their spirituality. And I don't want that for you. We have seen the behaviors of those who are disconnected and fragmented. Why don't we show the world what it's like to be whole and fully integrated with our spirit, with our science, with strategy? Ooh, this is where spirituality meets leadership. What a concept. What a concept, contemplative. This is the future of leadership. The future of leadership is this full integration with your spirituality, with science, and yes, with leadership mastery, aka strategy. Beautiful work. And so answer that question for yourself right now. Am I on the climb? Is that the path I'm on right now? Or am I on the path of answering my calling? And if you're about to endeavor on a new project, a new goal, because it is a new year, maybe you want to take a moment to contemplate this for yourself. Is this new goal that I have, is it connected to my calling or is this connected to other people? And be truthful, be honest. I want you to avoid the suffering. The pain's going to be there, my friend. Life will serve pain. That's inevitable. But we get to choose whether pain turns into suffering. And some of us on that climb have suffered greatly and will suffer greatly if we do not connect it back to our calling. Because you, my friend, have a divine assignment. And I can't wait to see what that divine assignment is and how much that can impact my, your universe, your community, your country. You were put on this earth for a very specific reason or reasons. Take that calling. Take that call. Figure it out. Explore. Discover. What is that for you? Now is the time to ask yourself, what could that be? What could that be? And if you're wondering what that is for you and you need some help discovering that, you're going to join me inside the sanctuary because the sanctuary is a new community that I created for us. And I want for you to go straight to my website at drdeniessimpson.com. Click on the sanctuary tab or right here where you're watching or listening to this. You're going to want to click the live link and go straight there now. I'm going to do a workshop just for our community leaders inside the sanctuary on what that calling is for you, what your divine assignment is, how to identify it, how to stop ignoring it because you've been ignoring those signs. I know deep down inside, you know, I've been ignoring some things. And this will be an incredible opportunity for you to get a fresh perspective before maybe venturing into this new path, this new goal. And so instead of climbing, you're going to answer the call. And I promise you that journey is going to feel so much more fulfilling, purposeful, meaningful, connected than this other path, the climb. That's a whole other leadership path. that I want you to avoid because I've been there, I've done that, and I've learned the hard way. So join me inside the sanctuary as soon as you can. I see you, leader. I see you, and I'm here to support you. All right, leader. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have one more episode in this season, and then we're wrapping it all up for you. Thank you so much for your time. I'm wishing you a wonderful day ahead and be sure to join me inside the sanctuary. I can't wait to serve you there. Take very good care. Bye. Hey, before you go, if today's episode served you, please consider subscribing or even leaving a review. Or you can share this with a leader who is desperate to find peace right now. Now, if you're craving a deeper refuge, somewhere where you can return to the stillness, I created a sacred space. It's called the sanctuary. Here is where you can reconnect to your divine assignment. thanks again for listening today reader until next time take very good care bye for now
