As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Embracing the Hourglass

June 04, 2023 Ken Joslin
As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin
Coaching with Ken | Embracing the Hourglass
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

What if we told you that the concept of time and the brevity of life could help you make better decisions and live with a sense of urgency? After the recent tragic loss of his brother, my friend Jeff shares how this deeply personal experience has given him a newfound perspective on the amount of time we have on earth. Together, we explore the idea of an hourglass as a better representation of our time, compared to the traditional clock, and discuss the importance of realizing our potential.

Join us as we take you through our reflections on living life with purpose and making the most of each day. We also discuss the upcoming Create Conference in Dallas, an incredible event that brings together top entrepreneurs from around the world to address the core aspects of life: faith, health, relationships, business, and finances. Don't miss this opportunity for personal and professional growth, and to tackle the loneliness many entrepreneurs face. Let's live life to the fullest and embrace the potential stamped upon us!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it on social media and tag Ken Joslin.



Speaker 1:

Good morning and welcome to another episode of as the leader grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, and we are seriously, ridiculously passionate about helping business leaders build confidence, gain clarity and create community and super excited to come to you guys today to talk about something that's really been on my heart for the past few months. And my best friend in the world on Instagram He goes by master Jeff Jafar Jafari Just been an unbelievable friend, one of my guys in my corner, and this past January at my conference in Atlanta at CREATE, he shared about he had literally had just lost his older brother who was under 50 years old. I think he was around 47, 48 years old. He just shared about that, about losing his brother, and he talked about time and I want to share a couple principles from his talk that day and I wanted to share a verse of scripture. I don't do this too often.

Speaker 1:

Those of you guys that know me know I spent guys half of the last 25, 30 years in full time vocational ministry, pastoring churches, planting churches, and my faith is super important to me. It's why it's our first of our core five, not just why it's our first of our core five. I believe faith, regardless of what faith you are is literally the cornerstone and the foundation of who we are as human beings. But Psalms 90, verse 12, this is what it says. It says So teach us to number our days. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. I think sometimes we forget that. Listen, we are not going to be around forever And I love that. The Psalmist says teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. One of the other translations, excuse me, says teach us to realize the brevity of life, like it is not going to be here forever, like it is not going to be around long. And literally we have no idea as human beings when we're going to take our last breath, when, when we might literally be finished with this journey that we have here in these bodies that we have here on earth, and I'll never forget.

Speaker 1:

I called Jeff that afternoon and actually Jeff called me FaceTime and he was sitting outside his house by the pool and he was broken. I could tell something was severely wrong. And he just began to tell me the story about how his brother had called him and said you know he was. He was in Iran. He said I've got to go in the hospital and get a couple things done, easy peasy, i'll give you a call back in about an hour. And apparently they'd given him a wrong dose in his or some some kind of medicine or something in his IV that he was allergic to and it killed him. I mean literally, for lack of better words. I mean took his life And just remember Jeff calling me that day and he was just, he was broken And you know, here was his very healthy, vibrant brother who was alive. He goes in for a procedure and the next thing the next call Jeff gets is from the hospital saying his brother was no longer alive.

Speaker 1:

In that scripture, when we realize our time is counting down, we tend to make better decisions with our time, and one of the things you have talked about at create this year that I loved was, you know, the clocks we have on the wall. They have the. I have one of. You know we all have those really kind of decorative clocks. Mine's like one of the big wooden farmhouse clocks hanging on my wall in my living room And it's got the hands that just go around the dial And the reality of it is, and I remember when Jeff said this, he goes. That's deceptive Because it makes it seem like time never stops, when the reality of it is. A better display or a better idea of our time as human beings would be the hourglass, because the hourglass has sand and once the sand is finished running out, our time is up. The problem is is we have no idea how much time we have, but we do know that it's coming to an end. I'll be 55 years old in a couple months and I'll be honest with you, it's. It's amazing to me to think that I've lived over half my life already And it's not even being about to turn 55. Is is like the big, big deal. But when you start looking back to I remember my 40th birthday. I remember my 35th birthday. My 40th birthday was a week before my, my last baby girl was born. She'll be 15 August, august, the 14th week after me. Already, five foot 10 and a half, she's taller than her dad by about a quarter of an inch. She loves it and reminds me of every time we're together. But I remember that seems like yesterday, like literally seems like yesterday. I'll never forget.

Speaker 1:

We got up. We had oh my gosh just about three or four friends of mine. We were all doing. We were all doing our birthdays together. There were several of us that were turning 40 years old and we had a birthday schedule together. We were doing it in my subdivision at the clubhouse. I remember I did, you know, like a hundred pounds of barbecue. It was insane. Huge birthday cake, all these people coming over pool. We're just, we're having a great time that day And we wake up about 6am and my wife was going into labor And so we had to miss the majority of my 40th birthday party And then, obviously I'm a Kate decided not to come that day.

Speaker 1:

She wanted to wait till the next week, but she wanted us both to know really quick that who was in charge. And it wasn't us, it was her, and it's been her for the last 14, almost 15 years. But I just remember looking back and it was, um, it was. It literally seemed like it was yesterday. And here we are, 15 years later and it's done. And so I want us to.

Speaker 1:

The big idea today is we talk for maybe 15, 20 minutes Is that this is when we realize that our time is counting down. We tend to make better decisions with the time that we have left. It's huge, it's absolutely huge. And today I just, i just want you to look, no matter what age you are. Every single one of us, every person within the sound of my voice, you're listening to this podcast today. Every single one of us can think of someone that we knew, probably in the last six months to a year, that was young, that lost their life tragically, or that was middle-aged, that lost their life to some type of a disease or during the pandemic, someone who lost their life I did, my older brother lost his life during COVID, like every single one of us. We all know people whose time ended shorter than expected, but yet every single one of us think there's no way that could be me. And you say, ken, that's not true, and I'll tell you it's true, and I'll tell you how I know it's true. I know it's true.

Speaker 1:

By the way, i see people live their lives Like we don't live our lives with a sense of urgency. Now, there's a difference between urgency and fear. Fear is oh my gosh, i don't have much time left, i've got to do this, or it can even cripple us from making the right decisions. But a sense of urgency is man, listen, my time is short. My time is short. I've got to squeeze all of the potential out of my life that God's put on it. Every single day I'm literally sitting here looking at my GSD planner. Every single day. For this year my quotes been the same thing. Am I living up to the potential that Jesus has placed on my life? When you realize your time is counting down, you make better decisions with the time you have left.

Speaker 1:

Teach us to realize the brevity of life. The Psalmist says in the New Living, in the New King James. I love it. Teach us to number our days to understand that. Listen. Time is limited. I don't know what passion, vision call you can call it whatever you want to, whatever the dream is on the inside of your heart for what you want your life to look like. I'm telling you there is one way, and one way only, to get to that dream, and that is to live with a sense of urgency. It's to live with a sense of urgency. Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Speaker 1:

I think when we live with urgency, we not only seek out wisdom, but we gain wisdom. It's not just a wisdom that we get from ourselves, from podcasts like this and books that we read out. We're literally in our GSD community about to hop into June and July. We're going through the 13 principles from Thinking Grow Rich. I've got my good friend, greg Reed, coming on this Wednesday night the first Wednesday in June to talk about the principle of enthusiasm. It's not just those things that add wisdom to us, it's the relationships that we have. I just mentioned Greg Reed. It's the relationships that we have that bring wisdom to us. I think that when you live with a sense of urgency, it is vital that you seek out wisdom. It is vital that you grow, that you learn, that you literally live. It's why I write this quote.

Speaker 1:

Am I living up to the potential that Jesus has placed on my life? For me, as a man and a person of faith, my whole goal in life is to be able to stand before God. When I take my last breath, i stand before God. My goal is to hear well done My good and faithful servant. That's my goal. I want God to look at me and go yes, he used every ounce of potential that I gave him. Are you saying that my life should be easy? Not at all. Like absolutely not at all. I got a resignation letter in the. I got an email to resignation letter from a team member last night at 915. Who, not who? and I've had resignation letters, as as have a lot of you guys. This wasn't even just a resignation letter, this was some some personal shots. Does it sting? Does it hurt? Of course it does.

Speaker 1:

I didn't say urgency brings ease, urgency just brings. Let me tell you what it does. When you have those moments like that, when you have those moments where you can't get buy in from a team member or you can't get buy in for somebody that's close to you and you're an entrepreneur and you're trying to move your business forward or you're trying to grow in your faith, health, relationships, business and finances, then you've got a relationship in your life that doesn't want to move forward at the same pace or the same speed you do and you're creating a gap and distance in that relationship because you have urgency and they don't have urgency. What it does is it helps you identify and define the people that need to be in your life. When you realize your time is counting down. You will make better decisions with your time. So here's the question today Are you living with a sense of urgency.

Speaker 1:

Is there an urgency? You know, you've heard me say before, if you need an alarm clock to get out of bed, your goals aren't big enough. And really that quote screams of urgency. Do you understand? as the Psalmist says, teach me to number my days. Teach me to number my days. When you do, when you understand, you don't have long left, whatever that looks like in your life. Even you think about it in the scope of eternity and the 2000 plus years of recorded history as human beings. Even if you have 50 years left, that's not much time.

Speaker 1:

Now here's the good news. What? can I'm 40,? can I'm 50,? can I'm 60?

Speaker 1:

And I heard I think this is Rick Warren who said this. I heard this probably 20 plus years ago And you know it's 30, 30-some-odd-year-old kid. You're like man, there's no way. And his quote was this you tend to overestimate what you can do in the short term and underestimate what you can do in the long term. You tend to overestimate what you can do in the short term and underestimate what you can do in the long term.

Speaker 1:

This really is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and I just put before you today that you can live life with a sense of urgency, because when you live life with a sense of urgency and you know you have a purpose, you know what your why is, whether it's your business or the lives you're impacting with your business, whether it's a revenue goal, because you want to be able to afford to do things for your family you've never been able to do before, or you want to send your kid to this college, or you want to take this vacation, or whatever the case may be, you want to pour back into a nonprofit or your local church that you're a part of, whatever that looks like. When you live with a sense of urgency, when things come at you because, i promise you, things are not always going to go the way that you want them to go, and when they don't go the way you want them to go, and you live life with a sense of urgency what happens is you look at the situation and you're like okay, i got this, there's purpose, there's a why, there's a reason, what can I learn from the situation? And you do that with an urgency because you understand there is a potential that was stamped on your life. The moment you took your first breath teaches to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Speaker 1:

Guys, listen when you realize, when you realize that your time is counting down. You don't live on this linear timeline like a clock, with hands where it it. It lulls you to asleep to think that, oh, time's never going to end, it just keeps going. Listen, long after you take your last breath, the arms of that clock will still be moving in a circular motion. They'll still be showing how time is represented, but the reality of it is for each of us, time is passing and we do not have an unlimited amount of time. You can spend money this weekend, i spent some this weekend. You can spend money and you can go make more money, but when you spend your time, it's gone forever.

Speaker 1:

It's why one of our core values is focus. Focus is how we dominate our calendar. How do I squeeze every ounce of potential out of every single day? Urgency You do that with. Urgency Doesn't mean you're in a hurry. Doesn't mean you're in a rush. Doesn't mean you you're trying to force things to happen. But there's an urgency. There's an underlying urgency in what you do. There's an underlying Okay, i am, i am called propelled. There is something that is pushing me to do this dream, this, this vision, this thing that God has placed in my heart, whether it be in your faith life, your health life, your relationships, your business or your finances, there's something that's pushing me forward. It's just to number our days.

Speaker 1:

My heart and prayer for you guys this morning is this That you literally would Look at this week with a sense of urgency. Look at the rest of your life with a sense of urgency. What if I said, what if you had? this was your last week on the planet? What would you do? What would you be urgent about If you had a year left or five years left? what would you be urgent about? And how would that understanding of how finite your time is? How would that, how would that understanding change the priorities you have in your life? Anyway, i hope that helped you guys today. Man, it's just something that's been heavy, heavy, heavy on my heart. Looking at the concept of time and that when we think it's never ending, we do not, we lose the urgency that we need in order to live up to the potential that God has placed on each and every one of our lives.

Speaker 1:

Listen, guys, if you've enjoyed this, if this is added value, i would love to hear from you. I would love to see you inside of our GSD community. It is the number one online community for entrepreneurs in America, hands down. We have dozens of amazing entrepreneurs who get together every Monday, 8am and every Wednesday at 8pm for coaching. Call, listen. This month it's the summertime, june and July. If you listen to this podcast later, obviously you're going to miss out on this. We've actually themed out this.

Speaker 1:

These next two months We're going over the 13 principles from Think and Grow Rich and I've got amazing friends of mine, like Greg Reed, who's coming on to talk about enthusiasm. Good friend and mentor. Sharon Lecter, co-author of Three Feet from Gold with Greg Reed, which came out of Think and Grow Rich and Outwitting the Devil, where Napoleon Hill's family let Sharon take the manuscript and literally published that manuscript and then, in that, shared her insights from that manuscript from Napoleon Hill. That book is phenomenal. By the way, if you haven't read it or listened to it, i encourage you to get it on Audible. It's an unbelievable, unbelievable book. And then Sharon's also the co-author of Rich Dead, poor Dad. She's the number one selling author of all time for females when it comes to financial literacy or financial books. She's Rockstar. She's going to come on this month as well and share with us on a Wednesday night her principles and her takeaways from Think and Grow Rich.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, if you're not a part of our community, we'd love you to do that. We've got three courses online. I've got three courses geared around mindset, strategy, leadership, development, private Facebook community with a couple hundred almost 300 entrepreneurs around the country. Listen, go to growthstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. You can join us absolutely free for 10 days. Growthstackdrivecom forward slash challenge You can connect with us absolutely free for 10 days. It's access to my growth course where I talk about how to work on our mindset because, listen, you can have a great vision, but if your mindset, if your belief system isn't on par with your vision, your vision is going to trip over your mindset every single day. How do you get rid of fear and security scarcity? How do you overcome limiting beliefs like shame, comparison and success Like? how do you do that? I walk you through in that course on how to identify, remove and replace each of those top six limiting beliefs that we see in people's lives. Growthstackdrivecom forward slash challenge.

Speaker 1:

Also, for those of you guys that are in the Dallas Texas area and maybe if you're even not in the Dallas Texas area.

Speaker 1:

We're coming to Dallas create conference, number one conference, entrepreneur conference in the south. Coming to Dallas July the 26th, 27th, the 28th. Myself, good friends like Brendan Burchard, gary Brecca, master Jeff Katherine Gordon, irwin McManus We have signed a contract with the one and only Jordan Peterson, just waiting on Jordan to sign his contract and send it back our way, but we should be adding Jordan to the lineup this week as well. It's going to be a phenomenal two and a half days, guys, where we go through our core five again, which is faith, health, relationships, business and finances. You're going to be together with several hundred of the top entrepreneurs in the world. Listen, the number one complaint I hear from entrepreneurs is how lonely the journey is. We solved that problem by starting create. Get in the room with people who think bigger than you, invest in yourself, invest in relationships and I promise you it'll be the best year you've ever had. Listen, look forward to seeing you on next episode of As A Leader Grows.

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