Ten Big Truths We’ve Learned from 300 Podcast Episodes
We reached a pretty amazing milestone at Beyond the Crucible this month. We published our 300th podcast episode on Feb. 24.
How rare is that number? Consider that studies show 90 percent of podcasts don’t make it past three episodes. Only 5.8 percent survive to see 100. And the number that match the milestone we’ve just marked? 1.79 percent.
How small is that? If you convert it to a baseball batting average, the player unfortunate enough to have it in his stat line would be batting just .018. That would mean he’s a bad ballplayer, but it means we’re a good podcast.
As astounding as the numbers are, though, one true measure of our podcast, begun Nov. 5, 2019, is the cupboard of key phrases we’ve collected over that time that help us turn our trials into triumphs as we craft a vision for a life of significance.
These insights have been birthed from my and Warwick’s discussions of the best practices to weather and overcome crucibles (including those culled from Warwick’s own life-rattling setback of losing his family’s 150-year-old media dynasty); and, of course, from the stories told by our diverse roster of 146 guests – among them an Oscar-nominated film producer, an Emmy-winning football sideline reporter for ESPN and a special assistant to a former U.S. president.
So, from those insights we’ve gleaned, here are the ten top dollops of wisdom that have helped to craft the day-to-day lexicon of Beyond the Crucible:
1. Your worst day doesn’t define you. It’s an all-too-common emotion after a crucible: my life is over, ruined, will never be the same again. The shame I’m feeling right now will stick to me for the rest of my life.
But that’s not true.
One of the many commonalities our guests and our host, Warwick, have is that they have escaped the suffocating clutches of their crucible’s sting. By reflecting on what happened and how it happened, by leaning into and applying the lessons the crucible taught them, they have gone on to not be defined by what went wrong, but what they’ve gone on to do right. By the life of significance they’ve found.
2. Your crucible can be a gift. We heard this expressed to us by our guest Stacey Copas. She suffered an injury that left her a quadriplegic when she dove into an above-ground pool as a girl – and the pain of that crucible led to her struggles with substance abuse and suicidal ideation.
But it also led to her developing mental and physical resilience that opened up a career as a speaker and life coach. And, as she told us, she doesn’t believe any of that would have been possible had she not endured her crucible. It was, she said, the catalyst for her growth and success.
3. No matter the size of our vision, it matters. There are no small visions born out of crucibles, we’ve learned from guest after guest. Anything we do to live our lives on purpose, dedicated to serving others, makes the world a better place and us more fulfilled people.
4. Faith is something outside yourself that serves as an immovable anchor for your soul. For some it may be a religious tradition. For others, a philosophical conviction. What matters, as you craft your vision for a life of significance post-crucible, is that you do so with your reason for pursuing it rooted in something greater than and different from yourself. Lives of significance aren’t about us; they are about something bigger than us.
5. You have to do the soul work. Warwick coined this phrase to speak to the deep self-reflection necessary to move beyond a crucible. It’s not sufficient to just change your surroundings; you often have to reorder your mindset, focus on tapping into who you truly are beneath the surface, to catapult beyond a crucible.
6. Your worst day is your worst day; it is not a competition. Warwick experienced this truth in one of the podcast’s first interviews in episode 5. The guests, father and son ex-Navy Seals Mike and David Charbonnet, were talking with us about David’s becoming paralyzed in a training accident.
Warwick started a question to David by saying that his own crucible of losing $2.25 billion in a failed takeover of his family’s 150-year-old media dynasty was “nothing” compared to what David had been through. David chimed in quickly to kindly stop Warwick from completing that thought. “Your worst pain is your worst pain,” he said. His point? There is no competition with crucibles. Warwick has held this truth close in the more than 290 episodes of the podcast that have followed.
7. Forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning what was done to you. Forgiveness is always needed in the aftermath of a crucible. Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves, sometimes we have to forgive those who have hurt us. But that doesn’t mean in the latter case we are saying what was done to us was “OK.” It simply means we are choosing to let go of any pain or resentment we may still harbor. Why is that so important? Keep reading.
8. Lack of forgiveness is like drinking poison. The only person we really punish if we refuse to forgive is ourselves. The bitterness ginned up by not forgiving has corrosive effects on us. It is impossible to truly move past a crucible if we’re still holding on to resentment and unforgiveness. Let it go to get something better back: peace that helps fuel a vision that can lead to a life of significance.
9. We need fellow travelers. Warwick coined this phrase to identify the friends and allies with whom we surround ourselves as we’re navigating our way back from a crucible. These are people who we trust enough to allow them to speak into our vision and who have, in many cases, different skills and passions than we do, who can add fuel to get our vision ignited. Fellow travelers are indispensable to turning a vision into a reality that leads to a life of significance.
10. Character is your belief system in action. Our beliefs and values are the ingredients we pour into our vision. But that vision will be nothing more than a raw recipe if we don’t bake the mixture. Character is the stove in which our beliefs and values become a vision that can nourish us as we move forward to implement our new post-crucible life of significance.
We’re excited at Beyond the Crucible about the learnings we’ve culled from 300 episodes of the podcast that make up the lexicon we use to help you move from trial to triumph, from setback to significance.
But we’re even more excited to move on to episode 301 and start collecting even more helpful insights to help you move beyond your crucible.
Reflection
1. Do you see your crucible as a gift? Why or why not?
2. What does “doing the soul work” mean to you and how do you make sure you do it?
3. Name three fellow travelers. What makes each of them uniquely helpful to you as you craft your vision and pursue a life of significance?
Are you ready to move from trials to triumphs? Then join us on the journey today. Take our free Beyond the Crucible Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment.
We share inspirational stories and transformational tools from leaders who have moved beyond life’s most difficult moments to create lives of significance.
Listen to our Beyond the Crucible Podcast here.