A Life Resolution That Will Last Well Past The New Year #149

Highlights

• The road to living in line with your passions and purpose is a journey (7:52)
• The insights our series, Discover Your Second-Act Significance, briong to the journey of living authentically (10:46)
• The overall perspectives of Warwick’s new blog (14:05)
• Step 1: Admit you have a problem (16:30)
• Gary’s surpsising “I have a problem” moment (19:02) 
• Step 2: Asserting your right to youir own purpose and calling (23:44)
• Step 3: Understanding your design (30:33)
• Step 4: Reflect on what you believe (34:25)
• Step 5: Focus on what you’re passionate about (38:01)
• Steps 6 and 7: Talk to your friends and family and find a team of fellow travelers (48:39)
• FDR’s fellow traveller (58:47)
• Warwick’s final thoughts (1:06:47)
• Questions for reflection (1:09:59)

Transcript

Gary Schneeberger:

We’ve just turned the calendar to a new year. What better time to turn the page to a more fulfilling life? That’s exactly the journey Beyond The Crucible has charted for you in our e-course, Discover Your Second Act Significance. The three module video course will equip you to transform your life from, “Is this all there is?” to, “This is all I’ve ever wanted.” Each session is led by Beyond The Crucible founder Warwick Fairfax, who shares his own hard won successes in turning trials into triumphs.

Gary Schneeberger:

And he’s got some high powered help from USA Today’s Gratitude Guru to a runner up on TV’s Project Runway. It’s an ensemble of men and women living significant second acts who would command a six figure price tag if any business wanted to fill an auditorium with them to coach their employees. But we’ve packed their insights and action steps into our course for a sliver of that cost. And if you act before the end of January, you’ll get 23% off your enrollment. Just visit secondactsignificance.com and use the code 23 for 23. So don’t delay. Enroll today, and remember, life’s too short to live a life you don’t love. Now, here’s today’s podcast episode.

Warwick Fairfax:

Welcome to Beyond The Crucible. I’m Warwick Fairfax, the founder of Crucible Leadership. We’re designed for a purpose, so if you want to feel joyful and fulfilled, follow the owner’s manual. Follow the manual of the designer. Some people have used the whole analogy of the clockmaker. We’re designed for a certain purpose. And so for those gears to function well, for there not to be sand in them, if you follow your design and your inherent purpose, those gears and their clock will start flying. You will have joy, you’ll have fulfillment, which ultimately everybody wants. Everybody wants a legacy that they can be proud of. We all have an end date, but we want our friends and family, our kids, grandkids, cousins, coworkers, we want them to be proud of us.

Gary Schneeberger:

The ultimate hope of every one of us: to live a life worthy of being remembered. If that’s something you’ve been thinking about during this season of New Year’s resolutions, you’ve come to the right podcast. Hi, I’m Gary Schneeberger, co-host of the show. This week Beyond The Crucible founder Warwick Fairfax and I unpack his timely new blog about ways you can commit in 2023 to live in a way that is true to who you are anchored in a vision that is uniquely yours and therefore uniquely satisfying and significant.

Gary Schneeberger:

We discuss seven key steps you can begin taking today to seize the benefits of authenticity from understanding your design, to reflecting on your beliefs, from focusing on what you’re passionate about, to surrounding yourself with a supportive team of fellow travelers. As Warwick says, the effort is worth it because your life matters. Warwick, this is the first time in a while that we’ve done one of these, what we call on the inside here, dialogue episodes. Translation to you the listener, that just means there’s no guest. And Warwick and I are going to mind some of the principles of Beyond The Crucible, and it’s really a great time to get to hear from Warwick about his ever-evolving, ever-growing perspective on what are the insights of Beyond The Crucible. So I’m excited about it, Warwick, I think you might be too.

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely, Gary. And it’s indeed the first dialogue of the year. So there you go.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, and the fact that it’s a new year is going to figure prominently into what we talk about. Very good. That was very co-hosting of you, Warwick, to connect the dialogue to what the next … You’ve just laid an on-ramp for me to get going about what this episode is about. And this episode is about Warwick’s latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com, which is timed to this time of year, this new time of year, this time of New Year. And it’s an interesting blog for Warwick to write. Here’s why. And he’ll tell you in detail why this is true. But Warwick is not Mr. New Year’s Resolution. In fact, a few years ago, two, three years ago, we actually did a podcast episode work, if you remember, about don’t be a resolutionary, be a revolutionary and do some things rather than set resolutions. So you’re not a big resolution guy, are you?

Warwick Fairfax:

No, I’m not. I mean, new year’s resolution, eat right, lose weight, exercise, be more organized, disciplined. I mean, that all sounds good. The gyms fill up in the first few weeks in January and then come February they empty out and then you don’t accomplish your New Year’s resolutions and then you feel bad about yourself and it’s easy to think cynically, “Gosh, I would’ve been in better shape if I hadn’t made that resolution because now I wouldn’t have the inevitable fail. Hey, I’m a few weeks into the year and I’m starting the year on a failure.” So there’s something about New Year’s resolutions that you make all of these resolutions, maybe you make too many of them and the steps are too bold and what you want to accomplish is too fast too soon and you fail. So something about New Year’s resolutions. I’ve never been a big fan also, so you’re right.

Gary Schneeberger:

Well, I have to confess, I am a kind of New Year’s resolutioner. In fact, I set one this year. My resolution for this year for the podcast in particular is to dress more reservedly for our show. So how am I doing on the first show? How am I doing?

Warwick Fairfax:

Well, I think you might have missed that one.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, well, I’ve got a lot of time. If you’re not watching us on YouTube, listener, and you’re just hearing us on audio, I’m wearing a bright yellow, canary yellow Dick Tracy hat and a checkered sport coat with a big flower in it. So yes, I am still my flamboyant self. That was a joke. I have not made a resolution to do that, but I wanted to see if you would assess me correctly and you did, so bravo. But all of that said, all joking aside about resolutions, this blog does say, as close as I’ve ever heard you come to saying, “Okay, if you’re going to do it, if you’re not going to abandon the concept altogether, here’s a resolution worth making and here’s a resolution worth keeping and here’s a resolution frankly, that over the course of time you can keep. It’s not a one and done kind of resolution. It’s a process resolution.” And what is that resolution if you had to sum it up?

Warwick Fairfax:

It’s really being yourself, being here, we’re designed to be not so much what others people think. It’s just being you. So one way of looking at it is don’t make resolutions that are against who you are. So me, I am in terms of my demeanor and I’m somewhat more conservative. So me dressing flamboyantly, A, it would be uncomfortable, because it wouldn’t be me. On the other hand, you dressing a bit more flamboyantly, you’re being true to who you are. So making a resolution that goes against your true inner self wouldn’t be the smartest idea. It’d almost to say wrong.

Warwick Fairfax:

So really, if you’re going to make a resolution, I’d say make it one that says this year I’m going to stop pretending. I’m going to stop acting. I’m going to stop being who everybody wants me to be. I’m going to be more truly who I am and live in light of my own inner purpose. Forget the masks, forget the metaphorical costumes, if you will. I’m going to be me and people may like it or not like it, but I’m going to live in light of my purpose and I’m going to be me, my true self, my true inner self down to the depths of my soul and not what other people, society, the world want me to be. So that’s in a sense, if you got to make a resolution, that, I think, is worth making, just every year you should be thinking that.

Gary Schneeberger:

It’s the kind of thing that it’s not a one and done, making that determination, this is how I’m going to live my life in light of my design, my passions, my purpose. Life has a way, and you talk about this in the blog, life has a way of chipping away at that. You can be walking along great on that path and you can get knocked off it somewhat if not easily, somewhat often for sure by just what life throws at you, by what your mind throws at you, by your doubts and those kinds of things. So it is important and it is a journey, isn’t it? It’s not something that you can say, “Okay, on January 1st, this is what I’m going to do.” You can make that declaration, but you have to live it out and it’s okay. In fact, expect to stumble a bit as you’re going through it because life is not always a friend to those who want to live in light of their design and personality and giftings. Is it?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, it’s well said. I think of that book, Mission Drift, which has more of a faith connotation, it really talks about how the mission of some of the oldest universities in the US drifted from their founder’s purpose. But more broadly, you can have a vision, a purpose for your life, but then maybe you graduate from college, you get your first job at let’s say a, I don’t know, law firm or something, and they say, “Well, you got to dress corporate, be more corporate, talk more corporate.” And part of that’s fine, you want to dress appropriately for the job you’re in, but pretty soon it can chip away at kind of who you are.

Warwick Fairfax:

Don’t really speak your mind, you’ve got to just tow the party line. And pretty soon a little bit by a little bit, almost like that old aphorism of the lobster boiling, the person you thought you were in 10, 20 years has evolved to such a point that maybe your friends, if you go to a college or high school reunion, say, “Joe, Mary, I don’t recognize who you are. I mean, you’re just totally different. There’s so many masks on top, I don’t even know if the real you is there anymore.”

Warwick Fairfax:

And you didn’t plan it, you didn’t intend it. But by little bit, by little bit, one little compromise leads to another, again, to use back to Mission Drift, it’s like a big ocean liner. You can make a two or three degree change in course over the course of a few hours and a 10, 20 miles, you’ve shifted way, way off course. So as you rightly say, it’s not one and done. This is something that life … It’s not necessarily people have this grand plan to shift you off center. It just happens. Life throws you all sorts of circumstances at work and at home. And so you’ve got to understand who you are and realize life will tend to want to shift you off center and try to stop that happening a bit at a time. And every year you want to think, “Okay, have I shifted off of the center and if I have, let me get back again.” So it’s not one and done. Life will continue to try to pull it its way and not your way. It’s sort of almost a lifelong battle, if you will.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right, right. And it is something that we talk about here at Beyond The Crucible quite a bit. And in fact, a lot of that is the subject of our e-course, Discover Your Second Act Significance, and that is when, right your need to do that comes in when it’s not other people who are saying, “Hey Gary, you’ve changed from what it seemed like your goals and design was.” It’s not external as much as it’s internal. It’s that place where you feel stuck. It’s that place where you feel like you’re living with a lot of discontentment. It’s that place where you ask yourself, “Okay, I’ve been doing this for a while, this life game I’ve been playing and is this all there is to it? I thought there’d be more.” So there is an internal battle there too, and that’s really what Discover Your Second Act Significance is designed to help people do is get off that high center, get off being stuck in that place where they’re not living a life that’s authentic to them, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, very often, and this is part of our discussion, is we’re not living in light of our life’s purpose, of our vision. We’re just being sensible. All things being equal, that sense of being stuck and just this inner frustration, that smoldering discontent, the flame will get bigger and bigger almost inevitably, if you ignore who you are. You don’t want to be in that stuck place. It’s its own crucible that maybe may feel like a pretty big crucible if you get stock for too long.

Gary Schneeberger:

And we’ve mentioned the e-course, Discover Your Second Act Significance a couple times. You can go right now, we’ll wait, put us on pause, go to secondactsignificance.com and you can sign up for that course. We have assembled six people from our podcast who bring perspective into that e-course. And if a company wanted to hire, pay all those six people to go speak to their teams, it would be a six figure bill to hire all of those very excellent speakers, USA Today’s Gratitude Guru, the runner up on Project Runway. But for a sliver of that cost, you can get their perspective as well as Warwick’s on how to move beyond your second act significance. Speaking of that, we’re going to move into the blog. I want to read sort of the setup, the last setup that you had before you get into the points of the blog, Warwick, just to set the stage.

Gary Schneeberger:

You say in your blog, “We have a duty to ourselves to be who we were designed to be. For people of faith, we have a duty to be who God designed us to be. We were designed for a purpose to have an impact for good in the world. To be clear, it’s not a competition to see who can have the biggest impact, important point. Impact can be in the eye as a beholder.” I love that phrase. That should go on a bumper sticker. “It’s about being true to who you are, true to our design and to our purpose.” That’s sort of the stage setter, isn’t it? There’s seven points in your blog that we’re going to go through. So that’s really the critical thing that listeners should have in their minds as we move on is that’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for your design and then in your design, living out your purpose, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely, Gary. I mean, from my faith perspective, we’re all designed by God for a purpose. Whatever your religious, spiritual or value perspective, I honestly believe we are designed for a purpose. There’s a creator, there’s a designer, and I’m not big into obligation, but in my mind, we have an obligation to live in light of how we’re designed and just to try and discern what our life’s purpose is. If you want joy, fulfillment, if you want to live a true life of significance, it’s living in light of our design and living in light of our purpose.

Warwick Fairfax:

If you ignore your design, if you ignore that purpose that you are created to be, then that’s almost a guarantee of frustration, of misery and you won’t be joyful and fulfilled. So just understanding that we’re here for a reason, for a purpose, and that can be very different for each person. It might not seem big to others or impactful to others, but it is to you. It’s not about the size or how other people see it. It’s being true to who you are. Maybe it has a global impact, maybe it has an impact on your neighborhood or with your friends or your family. The size is not really relevant. It’s more just being true to who you are and why you were put on this earth.

Gary Schneeberger:

So let’s dive into the points you make, these seven points you make. One thing I want to say before we get into them, listener, you’ll have heard these points if you’re a longtime listener, even a short time listener to this podcast. And Warwick, can you believe the episode of this show right now that we’re recording is episode 149? So we are one off from 150 episodes. So through the course of those episodes, the things that we’re going to talk about here, you probably have heard before, why is it important to talk about again?

Gary Schneeberger:

Because this is sort of Beyond The Crucible 101. The discussion that we’re going to have here is a quick summary of those things that help you move from, “is this all there is” to a life of significance, that help you bounce back, bounce beyond, move through your crucibles to a life of significance. And the first step, Warwick, in this process in your blog is admit you have a problem. What does that mean? And for people who are out there thinking, “I don’t have a problem,” what would you say to them? So what does admit you have a problem mean? How do you do that? And then how do you answer those who say, “Well, that’s not me”?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, I think there are some people that might be saying, “I know what my life’s purpose, I’m living a lot of my design. Not every day is Disneyland, but I have joy and fulfillment.” And I’d say, “Fantastic. Maybe this is a refresher. Maybe you can use this to encourage others that maybe don’t have that.” But the sad thing is there are many people, I don’t know if it’s the majority, it feels that way to me at times who don’t necessarily have an understanding of who they were designed to be or their inner purpose.

Warwick Fairfax:

And if you say, “Hey, my inner purpose is all about me, it’s about money, power, and me being number one,” I’d say I don’t really believe to be judgmental for a second that that really could be your inner purpose because I believe where we’re designed, as we say on Beyond The Crucible, all the time to lead lives of significance, which means lives on purpose, focused on others. So if you say, “My life’s purpose is all about me, and number one,” that is not in line with the paradigm we talk about Beyond The Crucible, right? Life is meant to be other focused. And if it’s all about you and some narcissistic vision, you have every right to follow that. But I don’t believe that. We don’t believe that leads to happiness.

Gary Schneeberger:

The other thing that I would add there is based on what you said earlier, and I didn’t think about it until you said it earlier, but admit you have a problem, another way to look at that will be assess often whether you have a problem because you talked about Mission Drift. And even if right now as you’re hearing my voice, you’re like, “I don’t have a problem,” by the time the podcast ends, you could have a problem because there can be mission drift. Life can throw things at you that can knock you off course. So being mindful of these principles and being mindful of asking yourself that question, do I have a problem? And if you do, confronting it, as you say in another context about confronting your crucible, run toward the storm, doing that is critically important, isn’t it?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. Well said. So really before you say admit you have a problem, how do I know of a problem in the first place? Some of the things we’ve been talking about, almost like going to the doctor. The doctor will ask you about symptoms. And so you might ask yourself, do I feel stuck? Do I feel frustrated? Do I feel like my life is drifting and I don’t really know my life’s purpose? And I get frustrated, I get angry. I take it out on people I love. Because when you’re angry or frustrated, you typically take it out on the people you love most. It’s just because they’re close by and it’s just the way life works. Human psychology doesn’t make it right or good, but it’s normal. So are you feeling stuck, apathetic? It’s like, yeah, I’m not depressed, but I just feel kind of numb basically in life.

Warwick Fairfax:

I’m just drifting through life. Life’s okay, you’re not meant to be happy. I just earn a paycheck to enjoy myself on the weekend and then come Monday and oh my gosh, I got to go to work again. And just the treadmill begins. If life is just gray and drab, I would say you have a problem. If you’re not feeling joyful, unfulfilled, not every second, but overall and you’re feeling stuck and frustrated and smoldering discontent, then you have a problem. Those are all clear symptoms that whether you admit it or not, that you have a problem.

Warwick Fairfax:

So if you are feeling all those symptoms I just described, then I think you’ve got to be honest with yourself and say, “You know what? I do have a problem.” As they say in, we all know that phrase in the Apollo’s space program, “Houston, we have a problem.” It’s just the first step. If you’re feeling that sense of stuck and smoldering, discontent and drifting through life, maybe you had a purpose at one point, but maybe the shine has gone off a bit and you felt like you’ve drifted, you can have a purpose. And then I don’t about lose it, but life can be getting more gray than technicolor. So first step is admit you have a problem. Because unless you admit you have a problem, nothing you can do after that. Just be honest with yourself. That’s the first step.

Gary Schneeberger:

And you do not know this about me, I’ve never said this, but what you just said prompted. That’s why I love these conversations because things come out that we haven’t planned. But I was in that exact spot. I was in that exact spot when I was finishing up at, I was at Focus On The Family for 12 years. I was the vice president of communications. If the organization, for whatever reason, would’ve had to shut down, I would’ve been one of the last three people to go because I had that much job security. I liked it. It was fun. But did it challenge me? Not really. Did I feel like I was really living a life on purpose that I hadn’t already sort of walked this path before? Was every day kind of Groundhog Day, it was sort of the same day over?

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah. It felt a little like that. So what did I do? I left a secure executive position in a large global nonprofit ministry and went to Hollywood to promote movies. People looked at me like I was nuts. Why would you let go of the “security” of what you had for the insecurity of where you were going? And it was exactly what we’re going to talk about here is I was at a point where I didn’t feel stuck so much as I felt like there’s got to be another gear. There’s got to be something else that I can do with the talents I’ve been given to do something good for the world to make, as you say here, to make a difference with your purpose doesn’t have to be huge. Helping movies open up well isn’t really huge. But that was something that I never realized. I had that moment. So it’s important. I always have felt like in my professional career, I’ve been living out of my purpose. But what you just said there helped me realize, and for that time I was not.

Warwick Fairfax:

Really the next step, once you’ve admitted you have a problem and it can come from different angles, drift, you had a purpose, its kind of shine has gone off a bit. You’re frustrated, the smoldering discontent, you’re stuck, variety of symptoms. Not everybody has the same symptoms, but there’s a collection of them. So we’ve covered that. So the second one is asserting that you have a right to have your own purpose and calling. It’s one thing to admit you have a problem that you might say, “Well, life is meant to be difficult.” We had a former prime minister in Australia back in the ’70s who in a moment of madness said, “Life is not meant to be easy.” Who says that as part of their reelection campaign? It’s not really good. It’s honest, but it’s not a winning political strategy. He amazingly, he won that election despite that phrase and became prime minister.

Warwick Fairfax:

But so the point is you can say life is not meant to be easy, true. But I think you want to assert the fact that you have a right to your own purpose and calling. You have a right and it can lead to joy, fulfillment, I believe it will. If you are, doesn’t mean the circumstances in life will be easy, but admitting you have a problem is one thing, but asserting you have, from my perspective, the God-given right to live in light of how you were designed and your purpose. And it’s not about making other people happy. Put a stake in the ground, a line of the sand saying, “I have the right to live in light of my purpose and I am going to do it.”

Gary Schneeberger:

And you more, Warwick Fairfax, you more than believe that to be true. You know it to be true. That is the story of your life. I have heard you say, Warwick, several times that when you were growing up in the family media business and you were the heir apparent, it never occurred to you, you’ve said that you could have a vision. It never occurred to you that you could have goals for your life. You were the next generation to lead John Fairfax Limited. So you know what that’s like. So tell listeners, what is that? What does that feel like when you don’t feel like you have the authority to pursue your own purpose and calling?

Warwick Fairfax:

It’s an interesting question. So as I look at these first two questions, I would say growing up in 150 year old family media business, founded by my great-great grandfather, John Fairfax, this billion dollar company in newspapers, TV, radio, it was massive. I’d first say, well, I don’t have a problem because I have no right to my own joy and fulfillment and happiness. That’s selfish. I’m here on this earth to carry on this media empire for another generation. It’s here to serve the community, to have newspapers that serve the country of Australia. If you wanted to spiritualize it incorrectly, God has put me on here this earth for this reason, and my happiness is irrelevant and I’ve got a duty to God and my family and that’s twisting things, but that’s how I felt. And so therefore, on the second point, I absolutely felt that I had no right to have my own purpose and calling.

Warwick Fairfax:

That’s selfish. My happiness is irrelevant. So therefore, I worked hard at school, went to Oxford like my dad and grandfather and some other relatives, worked in Wall Street, got my Harvard MBA at Harvard Business School. None of it was about what I wanted. Do I have this fascination with business? Not really. I understand it, obviously, but it’s not like I want to read about every corporate takeover or which company’s doing well and what’s the latest earnings per share forecast. Let me comb through the Wall Street Journal just to figure all that out. I could do it if I wanted, but it’s not really my passion.

Gary Schneeberger:

And that was, as you just hinted at there, that was both from external forces, right? Your family, but also some of that bubbled up within you. It wasn’t just that you were sort of held to the standard by the legacy. You felt like that, you yourself felt like that was your lot in life. So it was a very heavy mixture of those two things, and that made it even harder, I would imagine, to break free from it.

Warwick Fairfax:

It made it impossible. I think as I’ve sometimes said, listeners know obviously that in late August ’87 launched the $2.25 billion take of it three years later failed, basically. There’s no way I ever could have left. Nobody could have convinced me. I mean, I pretty much, maybe not a hundred percent certain, but about 99.9% certain there’s no way I could have left without the company falling into bankruptcy and continues on, but not with family being in control. So yeah, why it was so hard is it was founded by a person of strong Christian faith. Faith was very important to me. It was doing good for the country. We never did, as we say in Australia, favors for mates, as some media folks do, whatever our own internal political beliefs were. It was an independent paper that would hold politicians and business folks to account and the editors and journalists of the Sydney Morning Herald in Sydney for instance, they knew that.

Warwick Fairfax:

They knew that it was without fear of favor or what have you and that’s doesn’t always happen. So how could I not want to be part of a company and a sacred cause that would help the nation? It was important. So to me, not going into the family business would be saying like, “I don’t care about my family, my ancestors or my country.” It was almost impossible to ignore that. I mean, I’m very wide in terms of duty. It’s like don’t I care about my family, about my country? I mean, it felt to mischaracterize, I’ve never been in the military, it almost feels like it was World War II and your country is calling you. Don’t you want to fight for your country? Don’t you care? Don’t care about freedom? I mean, how can you say no to that? I think for most people in the greatest generation that it’s been called in World War II, there’s no way you could say no. That may be a poor analogy. I think it is. Didn’t feel that way when I was younger. It felt exactly the right analogy.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right. Well, the good news for you and the good news for listeners is that that was point two of your blog. There’s a point three. Before we get to point three, I want to read a quote. I pulled a couple quotes from some of the things that you talk about, and this is from Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of England, who asked this on this subject of purpose. “What is success? I think it’s a mixture of having a flare for the thing that you are doing, knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.” That’s how Margaret Thatcher describes success is everything emanating from a certain sense of purpose. So the way back for you, the way back for people who find themselves feeling like in point two, they don’t have the right to their own purpose and calling. Point three in your blog is to understand your design. Why is that so critical? Why is that so important, that first thing that you come to understand about yourself being your design?

Warwick Fairfax:

I mean, that was the first step for me, and I think it’s the first step for all of us is that, again, back to sort of the spiritual frame of reference, I believe we’re all designed by God, our creator, a certain way, and I don’t think it makes any sense to live against that design. Forget even spirituality. That’s just dumb basically. So if you know …

Gary Schneeberger:

In a technical term, in a leadership term, that is dumb. Yes. Thank you.

Warwick Fairfax:

Exactly. That’s right. D-U-M-B. Yes. So we’re all different. Some may be athletic, some may be artistic, some may be mathematical, scientific, some may be writers, business folks, salespeople, researchers. And that’s the beauty of humanity is we’re all so different in so many different ways. So if you’re artistic and love painting, to go and be an actuary in an insurance company, which is heavily mathematical, makes no sense. Now, I think a lot of us wouldn’t be quite that stupid to do that, but at the margins, just because you can write doesn’t mean you should be a lawyer.

Warwick Fairfax:

Even if you’re artistic, maybe being an architect makes sense, but maybe you think, “Yeah. But what I’d really love to do is design sculptures,” and you’ve got to be a bit more creative in terms of how you make ends meet, but you’ve got to be true to yourself. So understanding your design is critical. And we talk a lot at Beyond The Crucible, a number of tried and true assessments, whether it’s Myers Briggs, Strengths Finder, Enneagram, there’s a number of good ones. As an international coach Federation, ICF Certified Executive Coach, obviously, I’m a big advocate of coaching. So if you’re able to get an assessment and then hire a coach, or if you’re lucky, maybe have a friend that’s a coach with some training, that can be very helpful talking it through, what does a design mean for you in your life? That’s really the first step. And for me, just to personalize it, I’m basically a reflective advisor, quiet, reserved, certainly in my younger days. I’m not a take no prisoners’ corporate raider, although I did do a hostile takeover, I guess. Wasn’t my intention.

Gary Schneeberger:

It wasn’t your design. But yes.

Warwick Fairfax:

It was seen that way. But yeah, I’m a reflective advisor, and so being in charge of a 4,000 person, $700 million in revenue company at the time, it made no sense. What I do now, at Beyond The Crucible with the podcast and blogs and my book, Crucible Leadership, it makes so much more sense.

Gary Schneeberger:

This idea of design being where it starts, because so many things emanate from our design, the way that we’re wired. I mean, the way that your speakers are wired on your audio system affects how it sounds. The way that you’re wired affects the things that you do, what you can do, what you can’t do, what you’ve enjoyed to do, what you’re not so thrilled about doing. That’s really ground zero for where you’re going to find your purpose is the way in which you’ve been created. So exercising that, pushing those levers, pulling those levers, the right ones in the right direction is what helps you then move on to the next step. And the next step in your blog, Warwick, point four, is to reflect on what you believe. So we start out with understand your design, and then after your design, you then go into your belief. What are the key principles behind that step?

Warwick Fairfax:

We all believe in something, and I think one of the keys to living a life on purpose is to understand what you believe, whether it’s spiritual, religious values, write it down, talk to folks. But you’ve got to, again, it’s not about others or society it’s, you’ve got to be true to yourself. And part of being true to yourself is not just being true to how you design, but being true to what you believe about life and values and spirituality or religious way of thought. You’ve got to get in touch with that. To ignore that is to ignore your soul, which makes no sense. Bad things happen when you ignore your soul and who you divinely are and what you believe.

Gary Schneeberger:

That point reflect on what you believe. I found a quote that sort of summarizes it in this context about living your life’s purpose, but also in the context of overcoming crucibles. This is from Thomas Paine, the American founding father who said this, “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” That is a recipe for overcoming a crucible. It’s also a recipe for living out of your purpose, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. I think if you look at the founding fathers, back in the late 1700s, people would talk about values and what their highest values were, what their favorite character traits were, who their heroes were, and what character traits about those heroes that they valued. We didn’t always talk about that, but back then it mattered to George Washington, Thomas Paine, to Thomas Jefferson. It mattered to these folks because they knew they needed to be in line with their values and believe some of these people were very religious, were Christian. Some were more, as they say back then, were deists, which is more, I believe there’s a God up there. I don’t know that I’m specifically religious. I’m not a church goer, but I believe there’s a supreme being. So he had a variety of different people on the spiritual spectrum, but they all believed you need to know what you believe and you need to understand your values and live in light of them. There was universal agreement. It was the core of being a man or woman who wouldn’t have an impact in the world. Nobody disagreed with that kind of stuff.

Gary Schneeberger:

And I mean, they all lived it, right? I mean, we’re on the precipice right now. Our next episode is going to be the start of our series, Burn The Ships. People who have made brave decisions to let go of, here’s what I have been doing, I’m going to pursue something completely different because that’s my passion. Every single one of the founding fathers burned their ships after, frankly, some of their ships got burned by the British. So it all kind of fits together, but all right, before we move on to the fifth point, let’s just reset that what we’re talking about, we’re talking about a non-New Year’s resolution resolution.

Gary Schneeberger:

Warwick and I’ve talked about is it’s not a resolution, it’s a life solution. It’s a way to live your life, to make sure you’re following your principles that leads to your purpose, that leads to your significance. The fifth point that you mentioned in your blog at beyondthecrucible.com is to focus on what you’re passionate about. So just to set the stage here, there are three things in a row, point three, four and five. It goes from design to belief to passion, focus on what you’re passionate about. Why is that so critical?

Warwick Fairfax:

So you know how you’re designed, you know what you believe, and one of the keys to finding our life’s purpose, our life’s vision is to understand what you’re passionate about. You know you’re in the right place where it’s in line with your design. It’s in line with what you believe and you’re off the charts passionate about it. That is a sure symptom, if you will, of not a disease, but a symptom of the fact that you were living your purpose and your purpose is in that territory. You might not have a photorealism painting of the precise vision, precise purpose, but you have an inkling of the direction. It’s maybe more of like an impressionist painting.

Warwick Fairfax:

The direction need to be headed, and by heading in that direction, more clarity will come. And so that passion can come from a couple different ways, at least from my perspective. It can come from things that you daydream about. Maybe you’re a kid lying in bed looking at the stars and gosh, wouldn’t it be great if this happened? Or an invention or a way of thinking, a business, you just couldn’t start from daydreaming about it. You just kept thinking about it. A lot of us have had those thoughts, or for many of our guests on Beyond The Crucible, it can come out of a crucible, a soul crushing, soul searing crucible. It might be, I never want anybody to suffer what I’ve suffered.

Warwick Fairfax:

And it could be a business failure, it could be some sort of tragedy like abuse for instance. It’s abuse will happen, but it might be I want to do my level best to prevent other people going through what I went through. And one life saved from what you went through is a massive impact. So it could be from a positive, I have this dream, I wish it would happen, or it could be, I never want anybody to go through what I went through or if they had to go through what I went through, I want to help them bounce back as quickly and as wholly as possible.

Warwick Fairfax:

And that can be extremely motivating when you have this passion and this passion, as we’ve said in terms of how we define a life of significance, it’s other focused. Your passion should be about making the world a better place. It should be about helping other people, whether it’s from an invention or a business or whether it’s from, I never want anybody to go through what I went through. There’s this sense of passion. You just can’t shake. You might not have the precise vision, but you know the territory, you know the direction you need to head. That’s when you know you’re on the right track.

Gary Schneeberger:

You mentioned that there were guests on the show, there have been guests on the show, many who have from their crucible has been birthed what they’re passionate about. And I think of one guest in particular, just a few guests ago, and his name, God, what was his name? He was a former media mogul. Lexi talked to him. He was a former media mogul, had an accent Australia. Yeah, it was you, Warwick. I mean, that’s your story. Your story is your passion to help others realize their worst day doesn’t define them. That came out of your crucible, did it not?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, I mean, it’s true. I’m sort of living proof that it can work. Yeah, it was out of my crucible in which listeners have heard. I think a lot of times before, it wasn’t so much in late 1990 when the company went under, it wasn’t so much the loss of technically, I suppose billions depending on how you look at it, but a lot of money. It was more I let my family down. I let 4,000 plus employees down, myself. I mean, it was salt God from my maybe mistaken spiritual paradigm. I just was in a bad place that not clinically depressed, but took a lot of the ’90s to work my way out of the bottom of the pit. And so that was in a sense, my worst day when the company went under in late 1990, it was 150 years of family … My father had died by then, John Fairfax, my great-great grandfather letting him down, parents, it was soul crushing.

Warwick Fairfax:

And so out of that, my book came a number of years later, as listeners would know, out of a talk I gave in church in 2008, which my pastor asked me to talk about my experiences and lessons learned. And somehow people came up to me and said, “Boy, Warwick, that really helped me,” which is hard for me to understand how talking about a former medium mogul could help your average person, but somehow it did. And so that led to me writing the book, Crucible Leadership, Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance, and then hence what we do now with the blog and the podcast Beyond The Crucible. So that all came out of my story of wanting to help people get out of their pit and not having their worst day define them. My worst day has not defined me. Doesn’t mean I don’t have days when I’m looking back and say, “How could I be so stupid,” and we can all relapse a little bit.

Warwick Fairfax:

But overall, I’m in a much better place. I love what I do. I’m off the charts passionate about helping other people telling my story and telling other people’s story. But yeah, I am living that concept. You can bounce back from your worst day and you can find something that you’re off the charts passionate about. I didn’t have a complete vision when I started down this road writing the book initially was let me write the book. But as I kept moving down the path, the vision became clearer and clearer, and it does every day, every year becomes clearer. I just keep moving forward. That all came out of my crucible. So it’s absolutely possible. And that’s in my own way what I’m doing.

Gary Schneeberger:

And having been part of your team as you’ve walked out the last several years of that, I’ve seen not mission drift, but mission expansion and perhaps mission redirection as you’ve gone through it, as you’ve walked out what you’re passionate about, this idea of your worst day doesn’t have to define you. The way you talk about it, the idea that your crucible, your loss of John Fairfax Media was a gift early on. I asked you about, “Hey, would you say it’s a gift?” And you’re like, “I don’t know if I want to go there.” Now you say it all the time. So your vision, it’s not been mission drift, it’s been mission expansion, mission focus. Your mission has changed a bit, not fundamentally, but some of the details of it, and that, I would imagine, has brought you an even greater sense of purpose and significance, hasn’t it?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. Really, I think the vision has become clearer. It can shift a little bit, not in its totality, but the overall direction is clear. I mean, I go back to Walt Disney, that’s a very good example of this. He didn’t start out with his big vision for Walt Disney World of Disneyland or movies. He had this idea in the late ’20s, early ’30s, couldn’t cartoons be told in a way that’s a bit more interesting. And so that was the original vision. Well, it grew from there to Snow White and Cinderella and Disneyland, but he kept moving down the direction of using cartoons and then entertainment in a way to just tell stories that would just bring families joy. So the mission didn’t really change, but the vision evolved and grew and became clearer. It’s just a great example. So just you head in that direction of what you’re passionate about in line with your design and your beliefs and the vision may shift a little bit, but it will become clearer. Your overall mission tends not to change, if that makes sense.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah. I have a quote that sums up this idea of focus on what you’re passionate about. First two quotes you may remember listeners. One was Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of England. One was Thomas Payne, an American founding father. Here’s the third quote. “Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.” And that comes from the very celebrated world leader, Jon Bon Jovi, the rock singer. The man who wrote You Give Love A Bad Name, had a great perspective on the importance of passion. You don’t have to be a world leader to have that perspective.

Gary Schneeberger:

And it goes to your point at the start of this conversation, Warwick, that you can have impact, it can be impact is in the eye of the beholder. I love that. I’m going to steal that. The idea of significance. It doesn’t have to be this enormous thing and Jon Bon Jovi have to lead a country to point out the importance that the criticality of passion. Our last couple of points move us from beyond kind of the internal examination to bringing some folks in, inviting some folks into the journey.

Gary Schneeberger:

Point six is talk to your friends and family about your purpose. One of the things that I love about Beyond The Crucible and the way that you have built this, the way that your own experience has led to its formation is that you are a big one for a big tent. Bringing people into the discussion, having advisors. So point six, talk to your friends and family about your purpose. Why is that important? Because a lot of people will skip that. A lot of people think, “I got it. I’m gone.” You want people to slow down, bring other people in, and help that purpose grow through that process, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. We talk a lot about find fellow travelers. So the first thing is before just marching down the road too much is to say, “Look, this is what I’ve come up with. This is how I’m designed. I’ve taken these assessments, maybe done a little coaching, formal or informal. I’ve reflected on what I believe. Here’s my core values and spirituality, religious, whatever that happens to be for you. This is kind of what I’m passionate about. Could be something that needs to be invented or a business, maybe it comes out of my crucible. I don’t want anybody to go through this. I feel like I have an idea of this. What do you think? Does this fit?” Now the critical thing, when you pick your fellow travelers, I spoke earlier about not wanting to just listen to everybody that tells you who they think you should be.

Warwick Fairfax:

You want people that are for you that can be objective. That could be some family members, maybe not all, some friends, but not all, people who know you and don’t have an axe to grind. They don’t have a preconceived outcome. So long as you say you want to be a lawyer or an architect or whatever, it’s fine. But they know the answer they think, and you’ve got to fit that square peg in that round hole. You don’t want those sorts of people. If you have a predetermined outcome that you have to say for them to buy in and say, “Yes, you’re right.” You want people with an open mind that will look in the sense of the data, the data of how you’re designed and what you believe and what you’re passionate about and say, “Yeah, given all of that, A, that makes sense. I’ve known you for 20 years, for 10 years, absolutely.”

Warwick Fairfax:

People who have been around us, they know how we’re designed. It’s not a secret. They probably have some idea of what we believe. Probably have an idea of what gets you excited, what lights you up, if you will. They know you. And if the people that know us well, say, “Yeah, this kind of makes sense in terms of how you’re describing your design, beliefs, passions, and some inkling of vision and purpose,” the reason that’s important is it helps confirm. Life is hard. It’s hard to be, it helps to say, “Okay, these people who I know and trust, they’re saying this is the right …” And if for some reason they say, everybody says this doesn’t make sense and you believe them and then don’t have an axe to grind, you might need to cycle back through those points and saying, “Maybe I missed something somewhere.”

Warwick Fairfax:

So hopefully that’s not the case. But if feedback is good, whether it’s positive or negative, then cycle back and say, “Okay, what did I miss here? Did I miss something?” But let’s assume you are at the point where they say it makes sense, having that support team is helpful because it helps fuel your inner belief and your inner persistence. And the second form of fellow travelers is those who maybe they’ll be in the trenches with you. They could be business partners, employees, they could be informal folks that help you out, advise you informally. But having those fellow travelers both to help you determine that this is the direction that makes sense, as well as people will help you implement it. Very few people have all the gifts. So typically entrepreneurs, they’re very entrepreneurial and visionary, but they’re not good at details and managing about 90% of the time plus.

Warwick Fairfax:

Hey, I like vision and entrepreneurship, but don’t put me near a spreadsheet or financial books. And I mean, I don’t want to do that. Somebody has to do it, but maybe I can sell to pick an entrepreneur who can. Don’t ask me to do a bunch of market research because I’m going to get lost. So know your design, build people with complimentary skills, all of whom have that same, who abide to the vision. But this concept of fellow travelers, it can mean the difference between success and faith. You don’t have fellow travelers to help you discern and refine the vision and help you implement at the chance of success go from pretty good to lousy to maybe not zero, but very poor. It’s really critical this last step.

Gary Schneeberger:

What you said there about family members saying certain things, and maybe the first time they offer a corrective perspective, you’re thinking, “Okay, well, maybe that’s not true.” And the second one comes and you’re like, I mean, you said that. What I thought of immediately, Warwick, was my mom. My mom had this saying that. She say to me all the time, if one person thinks you’re, and she would use a word that I’m not going to say on the podcast, but jerk. If one person thinks you’re a jerk, it’s a difference of opinion, mom would say. If three or four people think you’re a jerk, honey, you might want to explore whether or not you’re a jerk. That was mom’s perspective.

Gary Schneeberger:

So she was very good in that sense of offering insight into my character and my purpose. And I like what you did here at the end. You kind of mashed up point six and point seven. Talk to friends and family because they’re kind of the same thing. You’ve got friends and family who are going to help guide you along of where you need to go, maybe wayfinders to send you where you need to go. And then that team of fellow travelers that will become those in the trenches with you. So one group gives you some feedback on where you’re headed. The other group helps you get there. Is that a fair way to put it?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, there can be overlap, but it’s really critical and people who have discernment and input and sort of a bit of a sidetrack. But in my life, I’ve had different advisors for different aspects. Yeah, it’s probably, I mean, it’s common, I think for many, if it’s like personal. Obviously, my wife Gale is my primary source, and some good friends. If it’s business related, if you will, at Beyond The Crucible, it’ll be the team I have. I mean, yourself, Cheryl, who heads up the team at Signal, Lexi, Casey, who’s on our podcast team at Content Capital.

Warwick Fairfax:

I mean, there’s a whole number of folks depending on what it is. I think many of us, we have advisors depending on what it is. So just be discerning, is what’s the issue? Who do I think has the expertise to help me here? So it can be different, but you do need those advisors and those fellow travelers. And you got to ask the questions and importantly, make them feel like you won’t jump on them, if they give you an answer you don’t want. Maybe you won’t jump on them. Maybe you kind of just lightly tread on slightly. But at least if you don’t pound them to the ground, then that’s helpful.

Gary Schneeberger:

And you want to make sure that they, right, I would always say I, in leadership positions that I’ve held, that there’s a difference between being heard and being heeded. I always heard those who worked for me. Tell me what it is you think we should do. If I don’t agree, if I’m the decider, then you’ve been heard but that doesn’t mean that you’ll be heeded. I’m still going to be the one that’s going to have to make the decision. And you’re very good at that. I mean, one of the things, listener, about being part of Warwick’s team is that he walks the talk.

Gary Schneeberger:

When he says have people around you that will advise you, he listens and he doesn’t just … I mean, he’s being extra modest by saying he’s going to pick the one who has the most expertise in this to answer a question about that. He’ll ask the entire team for their perspective on things, even if it’s not our expertise. So I’m weighing in sometimes on stuff that I don’t know anything about, which is maybe I’ll throw a dart at a board and it’ll hit it. But he wants as many inputs, and that’s the point, I think, of what we’re after here in this point of the blog. You want as many inputs as you can have.

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. One final point on this, because it’s really important. Yes, you’re absolutely right. People have a right to be heard, not necessarily heeded, but if everybody on your team vehemently disagrees with the direction you’re going down, they could all be wrong and you could be right, but the chances of that happening are low. I mean, from your mother’s perspective, I think it’ll be true to say, she would say, “You might want to listen to them.” Maybe she’d say it a bit stronger than that. You could be right. There is a shot. But the point is think really, really, really carefully before taking a direction that everybody that you care about, who you believe has a lot of knowledge fundamentally and vehemently disagrees. There’s a very good chance that you are wrong. So doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to keep going, but be really, really, really, really certain before you take that step.

Gary Schneeberger:

Asterisk on my point, individuals in my career were heard sometimes and not heeded. A group of seven people, they were heard and heeded. If they were telling me, do this and I didn’t think it was the way to go, things passed on a seven one vote even if the one vote was mine. So you’re absolutely right about that perspective. So Warwick, on this thought of fellow travelers, one of the things that comes through in your book a lot, and you talk about it a lot, most great, “great” influential people in culture, in life, they have fellow travelers who have a great impact on them. It’s like roulette. I can ask you name one and you’ll have one at the top of your head. So name one. What sticks out for you when you think of someone we all know who had a team of fellow travelers who really helped them in their journey to finding their purpose and their significance?

Warwick Fairfax:

I think sometimes examples that are larger than life, even if we don’t lead a larger than life almost superhero like life, they can help us understand. Bright technicolors can sometimes make the point. And so what occurred to me is Franklin Roosevelt, whose listeners would know was president from ’33 to when he died in 1945, and one of his closest advisors was a guy with the name of Louis Howe. So a lot of people would say there would be no Franklin Roosevelt without Louis Howe. He was his fellow traveler, his advisor. He was incredibly loyal. They first met in 1911, believe it or not, when Roosevelt was a member of the New York State Senate. He was this young charismatic guy from this wealthy Patrician Roosevelt family and New York family. But there was something in Roosevelt that Louis Howe saw. This guy has potential. He was like an political advisor type.

Warwick Fairfax:

And this is some guy that I wanted to be with because I believe there’s something about his charisma, his enthusiasm, and this guy could really make it in politics. There’s something about him. And so he guided his career. Roosevelt was appointed assistant secretary in the Navy under Wilson in 1913. He was on the ticket with Cox in the 1920 presidential campaign, the Democratic ticket. They got absolutely obliterated by Warren Harding and his return to normalcy campaign. So who knew that return to normalcy could be a winning campaign slogan, but it was. In 1920 after the first World War, Americans craved normalcy. But anyway, he was on the ticket. But really, as listeners would know, Roosevelt’s crucible happened in 1921 when kind of after visiting actually a sort of a boy scout group. Somehow he picked up the polio virus and he was stricken with polio, which at the time was almost like a political death sentence and he couldn’t walk unaided.

Warwick Fairfax:

He had to have these big heavy metal braces and he kept trying, but he was basically, other than those metal braces, he was confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life. Today is different. Back then it’s like you were meant to just go off and not be seen and heard for the rest of your life. Roosevelt’s mother, Sarah, was definitely advocating politics is over. You just need to have a quiet life because life is over. Louie Howe never gave up. And so we had this whole campaign. Eleanor Roosevelt was shy, retiring, said, “Look, you’ve got to get out there and speak all over New York state. And just to get Franklin’s name out there,” which wasn’t her preference necessarily or her comfort zone, but she did. Roosevelt wrote a lot of articles. And so eventually he became Roosevelt governor of New York in 1928 and then president after the ’32 election in ’33.

Warwick Fairfax:

Certainly Eleanor Roosevelt played a big part in encouraging her husband. You cannot underestimate her force and love and devotion was huge. But Louie Howe really equipped both Eleanor and Franklin to be able to bounce back from their worst day when he got polio in ’21 and just some of the things and he died in 1936. People called him the man behind Roosevelt. The New York Times described Louis Howe as the president’s other eye. The New York Herald Tribune said of Howe his loyalty is not to himself or to an abstract ideal of government, but solely to Franklin Roosevelt. It was said he was the man who put Franklin Roosevelt in the White House. Time Magazine after Howe’s death, probably said it best, he said, “Admirers he, Roosevelt, had by the millions. Acquaintances, by the thousands. Advisors, by the hundreds. Friends, by the score, but intimate such as Louis Howe he had only one.” Very few of us have somebody at that level like a Louis Howe.

Warwick Fairfax:

Without a Louis Howe, there would be no President Roosevelt. He believed in him at his worst moment when Franklin Roosevelt didn’t believe in himself in 1921 after polio. Louie Howe did and helped equip him politically and just in terms of his own self-respect to keep moving on and becoming the man he was. So Franklin Roosevelt was a great man, but we don’t pay enough attention to Louis Howe. There really would be no Franklin Roosevelt that we know of without a Louis Howe. So that’s in a sense, the ultimate fellow traveler, the ultimate supporter and friend, you don’t get much better than Louis Howe.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, and what’s great about that by sort of ending on that point, right on a excellent example of a fellow traveler is if we back up to the start of this conversation where we said assert you have the right to your own purpose and calling. It’s people like that, our own Louis Howes, that are going to help us make that purpose and calling one of significance.

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. And just to be clear, Louis Howe had no agenda other than helping Franklin Roosevelt be the person he was designed to be. Franklin Roosevelt always loved politics. He loved the hurly-burly, the competitive nature. He loved the arena. This wasn’t some vision that was being foisted on him. Louis Howe was helping Franklin Roosevelt be who he was designed to be, to live in light of his purpose. And that was the only objective Louis Howe had. I mean, that’s just an amazing example.

Gary Schneeberger:

And those are the fellow travelers that we need in our lives. Those are the people who will buttress, who will support, who will come alongside us as we walk out our unique purpose. Before we wrap this with your sort of final blog statement, let’s go back through what we’ve covered in this fascinating discussion about your most recent blog at beyondthecrucible.com and that the idea number one is admit you have a problem. If you’re not living your life, not even your best life, you’re not living your life, you’re living in someone else’s life, somebody else you think you should do, admit you have a problem, or if you don’t think you have a problem right now, keep assessing because they could pop up. I talked about that earlier. Number two, assert that you have the right to your own purpose in calling. Critical. Number three, understand your design.

Gary Schneeberger:

I love this middle part. Understand your design. Four, reflect on what you believe. Five, focus on what you’re passionate about. Design, belief, passion, those three things seem to be absolutely indispensable to living a life that’s your own vision. Then the sixth point in the blog, talk to friends and family about your purpose. And then the seventh point, find fellow travelers. Warwick, you’re so excited about this subject that in the blog at beyondthecrucible.com, when you begin your summary paragraph, you begin it with our life matters with an exclamation point. Why is that exclamation point there and why is this entire blog something you’re so passionate about?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, I don’t always use exclamation points, so that actually means something.

Gary Schneeberger:

I know. That’s why I’m like … You’re not promiscuous with exclamation points.

Warwick Fairfax:

No, indeed. So basically, I believe from my perspective, we were designed by God for a purpose. Whatever that spiritual paradigm may mean to you, Creator, supreme being. But I believe we were designed by God for a purpose. He gives us innate skills, passions, and that we were here, we are put on this earth to make a difference. Our life is not our own in the sense that we’re here to make a difference in the world. We’re here to lead a life of significance. We’re here to lead a life of purpose. We’re here to help others. If you live in light of your design, which in a sense, we’re designed for a purpose, so if you want to feel joyful and fulfilled, follow the owner’s manual. Follow the manual of the designer of some people have used the whole analogy of the clockmaker. We’re designed for a purpose.

Warwick Fairfax:

And so for those gears to function well, for there not to be sand in them, if you follow your design and your inherent purpose, those gears and that clock will start flying and you will have joy, you’ll have fulfillment, which ultimately everybody wants. Everybody wants a legacy that they can be proud of. We all have an end date, but we want our friends and family, our kids, grandkids, cousins, coworkers, we want them to be proud of us. That person led a legacy that we can be proud of. That person, maybe they were famous, maybe they were not famous, but they lived a life in service of others. They lived a life that had an impact. Even if thousands don’t know, it doesn’t take more than a few, more than one, but they led a life that impacts the world for a better place, and that’s what a life that matters means.

Warwick Fairfax:

And if you lead a life that matters, you all have a joyful and fulfilled life, and in your last moments on this earth, you won’t be so much filled with regrets. It’ll be like I gave it my all and I believe my life did matter and yeah, I made mistakes. I wasn’t perfect, but I did lead a life that was focused on others that had an impact. And with your last moments on this earth, those are the thoughts you want to have. Rather than I waited my life, I was angry, it was all about me. I may have made lots of money. So what? You don’t want to, so what? And just those last waking moments of grief and of sadness at yourself, you want it to be, I made mistakes maybe, but I lived my life on purpose. I was focused on others and my life did count, whatever, from your perspective, it counted. Doesn’t mean millions knew who you were, but you led a life that mattered. That’s the life I think we all want to live.

Gary Schneeberger:

And that, I mean, there’s nothing else I can say beyond that. That’s the reason, listener, we’ve done this podcast, this episode. That’s the reason Warwick wrote his blog that you’ll find at beyondthecrucible.com. At the end of that blog, as he does at the end of every blog that he writes, Warwick leaves you with some reflection questions and I’ll mention those here at the end of this podcast because if you want that kind of life he was just talking about very passionately at the end of this episode, if you want to live that, if you want to experience that, if you want to land at that legacy, here’s three questions you can ponder moving forward because that will help get your feet on the path down that road. First one, assert today that you have the right, the God-given right to your own purpose and vision, which the world needs.

Gary Schneeberger:

Number two, take steps to understand your design, your beliefs, and what you’re passionate about. Remember the, I’m going to call it, I’m going to call it right here, Beyond The Crucible triumvirate, design, beliefs, passion. Those are critical. Everything else is just advertising. Design, belief, passion. And then the final reflection question. Assemble a team of fellow travelers and supporters who believe in you and your purpose and your vision. Put those three questions together, explore those, bring them then to our e-course, Discover Your Second Act Significance found at secondactsignificance.com, and try some of that stuff out there because the same kind of insights that Warwick has offered here in this podcast, here in this blog are offered through that e-course, which he is, of course, the guide for. So until the next time we’re together and the next time we’re together, we’re going to launch a series on Burning The Ships.

Gary Schneeberger:

We’re excited about that, but until that happens, until that next time, next week, remember that we understand your crucibles are difficult. We understand it can be difficult. Warwick knows this. Difficult to live a vision that’s yours, live a life based on your beliefs, passion, and things that you really care about. It’s hard to get there, but it’s not impossible. One foot in front of the other, overcome crucibles as they come through your life and sell out to your vision. Make sure it’s your vision. If you do that, if you pursue that, where you’ll end up, the path you’re on is a path that leads to a life of significance.

Gary Schneeberger:

Hi, friends. You heard during that show, Warwick and I talk about our e-course, Discover Your Second Act Significance. We wanted to give you one more chance before this week is over to sign up for that course, if you’re interested. All you have to do is go to secondactsignificance.com, and as a bonus, if you go before the end of February, you’ll save 23% off the price of the course. Just input the code ’23for23′. We hope you enjoy it and we’ll see you next week.