The first of the skills that I want to bring your attention to is the be real skill of hold yourself accountable. This is doing what you say is important. And how did Greitens develop this skill and express it? Well, asking himself, am I just talking or am I living my beliefs, and adjusting, making changes? As a child he wanted to control his destiny. He wanted to have an impact. The stories of make up your own ending were really captivating for him. He also felt that he was born at a time where nothing could be done to really change the world. All the great things that happened in history. But that experience Tiananmen Square, we're talking to the people who were involve in the conflict in China at that time. He came to see that anyone could make history and that was inspiring to him. And that of course required acting in a way that was based on what he said he believed. Courageous action, not just the heart, but the fist, and that's what led him to sign up for the SEALs. It's such a powerful example of someone who is holding himself accountable. If I believe that I'm trying to help these people, well then, I'm going to have to become a warrior. And so he did. He also kept the people under his command to high account. So, holding yourself accountable means also holding people around you to account. There were, some of his guys were doing drugs and he found them out and he busted them, and they were dismissed. That was controversial, but he believed that this is what one has to do. He's a no excuses kind of person. If you're committing to a mission, you've got to act in a way that's consistent with how that mission should be performed at least in terms of the guard rails. Still allowing for flexibility but there are lines that you can't cross. The Mission Continues is another example of holding himself accountable, doing what he believes in, taking meaningful action. Building the strength through training not just through The Mission Continues but it is his own personal life. Training everyday to act to be fit. To act in a way that is demonstrative of someone who is trying to serve, trying to serve others. When he first started officer candidate school, he was given the task of helping one of the guys who was struggling to get through it. He was his partner. And this idea of helping someone else to help yourself informs the exercise that I want to suggest to you, and that is what I call the buddy system. It's really pretty simple and it's probably something thought of them, maybe you've already done it. But, here's a way for you to think about it perhaps a little differently. We know from research that when you make a public commitment to a goal, it increases the likelihood that you're going to follow through on your intentions. So, what's a good goal? Well, one that you care about and it's moderately challenging, not too far of a stretch but not too easy, it's specific and you can measure it. So, here's my recommendation to you think of something that's new that you haven't tried that you know is important to you. Maybe it's exercise or maybe a new business idea, some sort of community event that you'd like to make happen, it could be anything. And then, find a buddy, a person, one other person who is going to be holding you to account, like asking you on a regular basis, how is it going? What's the problem? Can I help you? And you're doing the same for her. So, she's got an idea too that she's working on it and you're helping to hold her accountable, so you're partners in holding each other accountable. Something small where you can reinforce each other's forward progress, provide feedback, and be mutually supportive. It helps. It increases the chances of your actually following through on your beliefs. Let's get to the second skill that Greitens' life and career illustrates, and that is this idea of applying all your resources. So, this means using skills, contacts, assets of all kinds, of the way you think about the world in one part of your life, let's say, your community or your family. And using those resources and assets to meet goals in another part of your life. This is another way of thinking about how to bring the different pieces together. Greitens is very creative about using the skills, relationships, ideas from the different parts and different phases of his life, to make positive change happen later in his life and in other parts of his life. So, the different parts are not rigidly separated. But, rather seen as a part of a whole. The fact that his high school English teacher is still a mentor to him is just one small example of that. But another is, the mindset he developed in learning how to box. And the value of preparation and the rituals and routines that one needs to build to sustain that sort of discipline. To be fit, to serve, to perform. The big idea, of course, was this notion of resilience and how he saw in his humanitarian community service efforts, starting back in high school. But, all through his young adulthood, into his 20s, how he learned how people are more likely to be surviving horrific circumstances, if they have to be helping other people and transcending their own pain. He used that idea to form The Mission Continues. So, there concept which is expressed in the philosophy of Viktor Frankl who has written the book called Man's Search for Meaning. Which I think is been sold to 11 million people and every language on Earth. It's an important work that inspired Greitens, and, so many other people. He tells the story of having survived the holocaust, he was a psychiatrist, and then, describing how the people who survived were those who were helping others, and that's how he survived. And he then developed a way of doing therapy that was called Meaning Therapy or Logotherapy. This idea is one that is, again, a wonderful example of taking what you learn from one part of your life and using it in another. Seeing how resilience is built through service, through pain, one's own pain transcended by helping other people. He then applied that later in his life in the formation of The Mission Continues. Now, how can you do this? How can you be more creative about applying resources from one part of your life to another? Let's look at an exercise I call talent transfer. So, here what I'm asking you to do is to think about how you can take advantage of what you know, in one part of your life, and use it to improve your performance in another part. Let's say you are a great parent or at least a good one. And you know the benefits of generous attention paid to a child. You've seen that, you have seen the effects. Well, maybe there's a way for you to take what you have learned about being a good parent, as your thinking about the next phase of your career and you want to emphasize more the role of being a mentor to people. So, how could you take what you have learned about being a father or mother and used that mindset and skill set to be a great mentor, and create value for your business as well as for the people around you in your work. All kinds of possibilities abound. And this unity of the different parts of your life gets stronger and there's a greater coherence when you see how the pieces can be mutually supportive. Another part of what JJ Abrams told me he so admires about great things life. There is a, quote, unity of form and function, as he described it. So, think of some talent that you have. Here's how to do this exercise. Think of something that you've got. Maybe you're a great organizer, or you are, you're good at building teams, or you're good at gardening. It could be anything. Just list the things that you're good at that you have a sense of accomplishment for. And just write them out, highlighting, not just about your work, but any aspect of your life in a kind of resume, but you don't have to call it that. But think of it as the things that you have done that you feel good about, and identify, well, what's the talent or the asset that it took in me, or that I've got. And maybe it's just the people I know in that part of my world. But, it could be a talent or skill, what did it take to be successful there? This is a way to create a kind of inventory of all the talents and resources that you've developed in your life. However old you are, you could be 16 or 65 or any age, it doesn't matter. And now, think about how you could use that talent or that asset, that muscle that you've developed, and apply it somewhere else. because a strong muscle in your arms, let's say. If you've got strong arms, you can do a lot of things with a strong arm. You can carry a baby, you can lift wood, you can carry food, or water. There's lots of things you can do with a strong arm. It's the same idea. Take an asset that you've got. Maybe you're an accountant and so, perhaps you could teach a budgeting skills class to your kid's high school one evening a week, or something like that. Anything that you know, or have developed in achieving things that matter to you. Think about where you could then apply them. And then try that out. Talent transfer. Focusing on results, the third of the skills that Greitens' story illustrates, means just that, being really clear about the goal, and flexible about the means. He is someone who is all about, what's the outcome? Achieving we're seeking to achieve, and has it been produced, and that enables people to be imaginative and practical about the means, by which those goals are pursued. Clear on goals, flexible about means, that's the big idea. And that means thinking about what you've got that you're trying to make happen and then being creative about how to do that. In Rwanda he saw these powerful women who had been typically portrayed in the west as victims, he wanted to show something different. He wanted to show how strong they were, and how resilient and powerful they were in getting through a tragic circumstances. But he, as he said, I was an expert at nothing. I didn't know anything about their circumstances, really. But, I knew how to take pictures, another thing that he picked up along the way. So, he took pictures and then brought them to different groups back home here in the states, and used that as a way to change perceptions of these people. He was creative about how he went about the task of bringing knowledge about the Rwandan situation, a new prospective on it, to people here who then might provide support, resources, money, etc. Singing his way through some of the terrible rigors of hell week in Navy SEAL Training, another inventive way to get through to the goal of succeeding to get through the pain. Adapting tactics small steps persistence strategic Progress is what it was called in his training in the military. The idea that you take small steps in a direction that matters. The strategic direction is clear and then you take small steps along the way and of course you're adjusting. Tending to how people are reacting and making adjustments continually. Commanders intent, clear, flexible on how you get there. Alright, how can you get better at doing focusing on results, because it's a very important skill, and one that you can get better at. Well, one thing you can do is to imagine alternative scenarios. So, identify a goal that you've got that you're currently trying to pursue and take some time to just step back and sketch out three different pathways. What are three different ways I could get to that same place? And then, think through a little bit further what resources would you need? What people would you need help from? How much of a stretch would this require from me from where I am right now? Just thinking those different scenarios through increases the flexibility of your mind and your possibility for creative action. A variation on this would be to take something that you do all the time, let's say it's practicing your trumpet, and to do it at a different time or at a different location. And it could be anything. But, just shift where you do something on a routinized basis. And then, just observe what happens as a consequence of your making this adjustment. This is a really simple thing that you can do. But, if you're paying attention to the consequences of your making such a conscious shift, you're going to probably learn something new about what it means for you to flex on the means, try it. Eric Greiten searched his soul in his and he chose an uncertain future, to become a Navy SEAL. He acted on the lessons from failures that he'd experienced, to save people who were innocent and victims of tragic circumstances. He learned that he needed, both the heart and the fist, that we need that. And in his post-war, post-service doldrums, he found a way to ennoble veterans by giving them opportunities to serve. He held himself accountable. For what he believed in. And as he told me, he doesn't think about balance at any one time, but like all the people that we're studying here, the idea of harmony among the different parts, is one that he sees just as I do as happening in phases over the course of your life. That's where harmony emerges. He's someone who shows us how to use the available tools to get the job done right now, and to draw from all parts of your life in doing so, and to invest in your own fitness and training, whatever that means for you. It could be mental, it could be spiritual, it could be physical, to be able to achieve the goals that matter and to be able to be focused clearly on the results that you're trying to achieve and creatively progressing toward them. All right, let's now turn our attention to the next of our exemplars, Michelle Obama.
