So, in a previous episode, in fact the last one, we talked about “Who are you?” I gave you four exercises to do in your journal. During those exercises, I hope you discovered new things about yourself, and that you’re on the right path … The right path to becoming the author of your own story, and living that life of your dreams. You deserve it.
I was actually down in Colombia earlier this year. In Colombia, we were in the jungle with a shaman, we were drinking a drink called yage. During this whole ceremonial process, we were coming out of it and one of the other people that were there, he came up to me. His name happened to be Tony. Tony came up to me and said, “What do Dougs do?” I thought, “Okay, well what do you mean what do Dougs do?” Do you mean what do I do for a living? What do I like to do for fun? What do you mean what do Dougs do? He’s like, “No, no, no. That’s not what I’m talking about at all.”
Tony happened to be an older gentleman who’d been on spiritual journeys most of his adult life and was really wise. He said, “No, what I want to know is ‘What do Dougs do?’.” He said, “Here’s what Tonys do. What Tonys do is they like to write. They write down deep thoughts and interesting ideas so they could share it with the world, and that is really my passion. That’s Tony’s passion. When Tonys are confronted with conflict, Tonys get angry and they almost want to erupt. But through the action of writing allows him to calm down and get re-centered.”
I thought, “Wow, that’s really interesting.” So what Tony’s talking about is what is your natural essence? What is that natural North Star that you have? One, what is it? I’ll add onto that, because after thinking about that, is that the North Star that you want? Is that the guiding light that you actually want to be? Now of course, in the Amazon jungle, going through these ceremonies, and we were out of it for this time. We were out of it a lot, but we were out of the ceremonial process and off the yage, but still you have that euphoric feeling going on. During that gives you a lot of inner clarity and ways to look at yourself.
So it was a great experience for me, but what came out of that is what do Dougs do? What do Dougs do? Well, my whole life I’ve been a teacher. I’ve guided, I’ve been a soccer coach, I’ve been a personal trainer, I’ve been a business owner, I’ve lectured at universities, I’ve always been a teacher. The other thing of what do Dougs do, well, gosh, Doug at his essence is always helping people. I’m always going out of my way to help people. It’s just something that I always do. I’m always looking out after others. I’m always looking out at others, especially those that are less fortunate than me, that may not have what I have or the abilities that I was born with, the natural abilities. I’ve got two legs, two arms, just at the very basics. I happen to have brothers that beat me up, so I could be athletic. So, I’m very lucky and fortunate in these areas.
So what do Dougs do? So I wrote that down. It was really profound for myself. Now how I want you to do this, is ask yourself, “What do …”, insert your name, “do?” Write that down at the top of your journal and write that down. Try to boil it down to an essence, right? An essence of maybe one to sentences.
So what do Dougs do? Dougs love others and they do that by teaching them and showing them, and helping them to become the best person they could possibly be. That was my mission, right? Coming out of that, we decided to film 365 these … I committed to that, of these Daily Growth Hacks, where I’m talking to you and trying to offer you a little piece of insight that I hope helps you better your day, but also better those around you, better the world. That’s my ultimate goal.
So, what I want you to do is write in your journal and write down what you do. Like what do Dougs do? Write that down and make sure that aligns with your North Star. What I mean by North Star, make sure that aligns with the person that you want to become, or the person that you are becoming. If it doesn’t, then maybe you have some deep questions to ask yourself about changing that.
This is a great conversation topic, so I always recommend or ask you share this with at least three people. In this conversation, I’m going to ask you to share it with even more. Share it with people around you, and have that conversation. Maybe you can do what Tony did and just go up to somebody and say, “Hey, what do Carols do? Or what do Billys do or what do Darcys do? Or what do Maudes do?” Then have that weird conversation that I had with Tony like, “What are you talking about?”
But it really opened up the lines of communication, and Tony and I had a really deep exchange and became good friends based on that conversation. So I’m asking you to do the same thing. What I’m also suggesting is you can use this as your North Star. So when problems come up in business, or in relationships, or dilemmas, whether they be moral dilemmas in your life or just decisions that you just don’t know what to do, use this. What would Dougs do? Oh, well Dougs would go this way. Dougs would make this decision based on what their natural essence is. That makes it so much easier to follow your heart. Right? Get into your heart zone and follow what your path would be. It’s just an easy, easy exercise and it’s an easy North Star to carry around, so to speak, in your pocket that you always have, you can pull out.
That’s it for me today. Remember, go out and share this with more than three people today after you’ve done this exercise, because this is a great conversation starter and a great way to bring other people into your fold so you have a bigger tribe and you can go out and be the author of your own story.
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