SNS87 Saturday Night Special - Interview with Guang Ming Whitley from Aenea
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to tonight's. Saturday night, special episode 87.
[00:00:04] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:00:04] I'm warming Whitley. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to build the skills to last a lifetime is key.
[00:00:20] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:26]but you never know. So one story from that came out of girls state was this was years ago in the MySpace era. But there was a young woman. We, they were all talking about colleges and where they were going to go. And then one girl was very quiet. So I spoke to her to try to draw her out and say what about your plans?
[00:00:43] And she's no, I can't, my parents didn't have any money. They didn't go to. I can't go to college.
[00:00:48] Scott Maderer: [00:00:48] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your [00:01:00] talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:14]And tonight Saturday night special. I ask one being Whitley to walk us through her multi-stage career. And what she's learned from it. I also asked her to help explain her focus on closing the skills gap that many young adults have when starting their life. She also shares how life and career is really a ladder, but rather a lattice.
[00:01:34] One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're going to hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible.
[00:01:55] Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign [00:02:00] up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.
[00:02:23]Welcome to the show. Go on me.
[00:02:26] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:02:26] Thanks so much for having me, Scott.
[00:02:28] Absolutely. We're excited. You're here and you have some information that is near and dear to my heart. So as a former teacher, we're going to talk a little bit about kind of the gaps that people have between sort of education and life.
[00:02:45] But before we go there, You yourself have gone through a lot of different stages in your life. You've had successful career you've down doing homeschooling. You're raising some awesome kiddos. You're writing fiction, [00:03:00] nonfiction, do a lot of different that you're working in public office. How has heading having this multi-stage life with all of these different phases?
[00:03:10] How has it changed your views of what it really means to be successful in life?
[00:03:14]It's really interesting because I had a very linear view of life and of success and it was success was achievement in, in all things. You go to high school and you work your butt off to get into that.
[00:03:26] Great college. And then you worked so hard in college to get into that grad school. Then you work so hard to get that great career going, and then you get to the career and you look forward and it's decades that are ahead of you decades that are ahead of you for for defining what that success means to you.
[00:03:42] And, I had a mentor once tell me, she said, The think of my life in segments that you were always in a phase and then you can, and you need to focus on the segment that you're in before you move on to the next segment. So I got that advice when I was in college and it was very interesting for career because after law school, I had to, I [00:04:00] had a brief interlude because my husband was actually in law school a year below me.
[00:04:04]And so he still had a year left of school to finish. So I had to figure out what was I going to do in that year and, stars aligned. And I got a teaching position at the university of Chicago, and that's what I did for that one year. So I was in a teaching segment. Then I went into the practicing law segment.
[00:04:18] And for me I really intended that segment to be a lot longer than it was, but got pregnant with my first child and realized that I was so type a, that I couldn't bear anyone else. Raising my children for me, I said, like some people are so type a that they can't bear the child rearing part, they're like, we're going to outsource that.
[00:04:37] And I will, I'll be there for my kids. I'll spend time with them, my career comes first and I don't have the bandwidth to deal with the diapers and the crying and all that kind of stuff all the time. Whereas I was like, okay, I don't want to deal with all that stuff either, but I also can't bear anyone else being there for all of the.
[00:04:52] Other things, like all the educational components and those kinds of things. And so I really shifted. And quit my [00:05:00] job. My final day was two weeks before my due date and became a stay at home mother and had kids in quick succession, have four kids and twins on the last round. So that was an exciting and exciting add to the family and really was focused on them.
[00:05:16] But at the same time found that I needed something more to be doing just to keep my brain active. And that's when I started writing. But what really changed for me was this. Definition of success as being something extrinsic. Having to have external validation to confirm my success. Like when you're working at a law firm, you get a review every year and they tell you how you did, you get a bonus and when you were stay at home, mom, there's no bonus.
[00:05:40]Scott Maderer: [00:05:40] There are bonuses, but they're not exactly the same form.
[00:05:43] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:05:43] And there's no. Three 60 review of metrics and your performance and your output and your impact.
[00:05:49] Scott Maderer: [00:05:49] Yeah. Wait your kiddos. Don't give you a performance review.
[00:05:52] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:05:52] Imagine if people, I think they're old enough now we're actually could probably ask them to give me a performance review.
[00:05:58]You
[00:05:58] Scott Maderer: [00:05:58] may not want to go there though.
[00:06:02] [00:06:00] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:06:02] But it's one of those things where I now looking back on it, I really had to shift. And instead of becoming externally and extrinsically motivated, I had to become intrinsically motivated. And I had to find that kind of within myself of saying, you know what I need to adjust what my view is of success and success doesn't mean the same thing to all people.
[00:06:21]And recognizing that because I had been so focused for so long on achieving the. Career material success that when everything shifted to suddenly being a full-time stay-at-home mother that really and a writer that kind of shifted my definition of what is success.
[00:06:39]And I think that it's really like the younger that you are, that you can. Understand that success is different for different people. And it really depends on what your ultimate goals are and what you want out of life. What sort of lifestyle you want to lead? You know that the sooner you can realize that and that you don't have to be pursuing the same thing that you think everyone else is pursuing.
[00:06:57] I think that's better because then you can start to adjust your path [00:07:00] accordingly.
[00:07:00]Scott Maderer: [00:07:00] And it can help you reduce some of that. I think the trap that a lot of us fall into is the comparison trap of, and especially nowadays with social media and everything else, it's, all we ever see from everyone else's.
[00:07:12] They're wonderful vacation pictures. We never see what's behind the camera,
[00:07:18] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:07:18] highly curated life. Everything is selected. Everything is posed. Everything is chosen and it's what they're choosing to present to you. And you really don't know what's going on behind the scenes at all. It's funny as thinking about how.
[00:07:30] I was always, I called it the gold star girl. Like you always wanted to have that sticker, give me the gold star. I need the gold star. And you when you don't have anyone else to give you that gold star, you almost have to create gold stars for yourself of okay.
[00:07:42] If I get all the laundry done and folded and put away, that's a gold star or. No,
[00:07:46] Scott Maderer: [00:07:46] no. That would be worth at least two.
[00:07:48]Guang Ming Whitley: [00:07:48] Like I said, I was making a joke. I was like, if I get 30 gold stars, I get to buy a new pair of shoes, some kind of bonus or reward.
[00:07:57]Scott Maderer: [00:07:57] But it is. Again, I think part of it does have to do with how. [00:08:00] And different people are wired different ways but how some of us are wired and by the way, I think maybe we can start a self-help group, but like the recovering gold star group or something it's probably a product in that somewhere.
[00:08:10] But anyway the idea of recovering from the idea that we are dependent upon everyone else's approval and being able to learn. To actually self motivate is that's a big
[00:08:21] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:08:21] deal. So it was interesting for me after my twins entered kindergarten, I decided to run for public office and you never please everybody with when you're an elected official, that's just the way that it is.
[00:08:31] And you have to do the things that are in line with your conscience and what enables you to sleep at night. And as long as I think as I can do that, then I will feel like I'm earning the gold stars of doing my job. And I always try to listen to my constituents and if they bring good ideas, I view my role as to pick up the football and carry it as far to the finish line or the.
[00:08:51] I'm mixing my sports. So I don't know as far, as far as I can
[00:08:57] Scott Maderer: [00:08:57] get, correct. I'm not a sports person either, so [00:09:00] we're all good.
[00:09:01] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:09:01] So I'm taking the Baton and I'm carrying it to the finish line and I'm trying to get it as far as I can go to the finish line and bring to fruition, different things.
[00:09:09] So ranging from, One of them was somebody tethered their dog outside during a hurricane. And the dog was rescued. The dog is fine and in a new home, but the humane society reached out to me and said, would you be willing to sponsor an ordinance that, that makes that illegal so that people can't do that to their animals during a time of something like a hurricane.
[00:09:28] And so I, I picked up the Baton and we got it across the finish line. It was unanimously passed by council. So those are the kinds of. Things there, as long as you can, as you, long as you listen to others and you take, what they bring to you and then you do with it, what you can, then you can feel a sense of accomplishment that you've got something done.
[00:09:46] Scott Maderer: [00:09:46] So earlier I alluded to this idea of the skills gap. And as a former educator, this was actually something that I've seen a lot because I worked in both as a teacher. And then I worked in educational assessment where we actually developed [00:10:00] test, including adult ed kinds of tests, for certifications and all of this.
[00:10:04] And there is this interesting. Dichotomy that we have in our society where we will occasionally turn out highly educated people that don't actually have all the skills they need to function in life. And so I know you're doing some work with anemia focused on looking at that skills gap and how we can fix it.
[00:10:25] Can you talk a little bit about that program and what you're working on
[00:10:28] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:10:28] there? Yes. So AMEA is really focused on, Bridging that gap between formal education and sort of the skills necessary to navigate life. And it was partly inspired by my own experience. So my dad was first-generation to go to college and my mom was an immigrant from Taiwan and they were highly focused on education.
[00:10:47] I was as book-smart as you could be, like straight a student. But there were so many soft skills that I didn't know. There were so many things that I didn't know. So when I was applying to college, which had to do all on my own I got an [00:11:00] interview and it was an interview with Harvard.
[00:11:02] It was the one college I didn't get into and I didn't know what to wear and my mom didn't know what to wear either. So she took me to this boutique next to the drug store in the strip mall, near my house. And let's just say my interview suit involved. Zippers zebra print and a very short skirt. And that is what I wore to my Harvard interview.
[00:11:24] And not only was I dressed completely inappropriately, I had no clue how to answer interview questions. I had never done an interview before. There was nobody to do a mock interview with me. It wasn't the internet. Wasn't the, what it is now. I couldn't just Google it. Wasn't a
[00:11:37] Scott Maderer: [00:11:37] YouTube to go watch,
[00:11:39] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:11:39] came to go to.
[00:11:40] So what anemia is trying to do through our training modules is to fill those gaps. So depending on where you are, whether you're a high school student you just starting out and trying to plan your high school career, whether you're applying to college, whether you're in college just basic professionalism, some basic financial literacy some of those soft skills, things like the [00:12:00] importance of building your network, like the younger that you are, that you realize that you need.
[00:12:04] To have a strong network and the importance of that and how to do so in a genuine manner. One that's not transactional, just teaching those kinds of principles, ranging to just healthy, happy human stuff. Some people don't know how to have good sleep habits and exercise habits and diet habits.
[00:12:20] And if you are lacking in those areas of your life, it bleeds into your professional life as well. So we are taking a holistic approach and. You come to us, there's an assessment quiz and there's a custom curriculum that comes out that then helps you fill your knowledge gaps. Even things like let's say you're a foreign exchange student.
[00:12:39] There's we have a module on pumping gas in America because there, there are people who don't know how to. Pump gas, and it's just explains how to do it. And just to make sure that you don't put diesel in your car, it's
[00:12:50] Scott Maderer: [00:12:50] my wife has done that. Nobody actually told her the difference since she and she learned, she did it when she was a young child, younger adult when she was first starting to drive.
[00:12:59] So yeah,
[00:13:00] [00:13:00] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:13:00] that's what my partner and I had been working towards getting our. Our basic product complete, and we're hoping to have something available towards the end of March, early April ready to go. And we're actually in talks with multiple nonprofits that work with underserved youth that we're hoping to pilot out what we're doing with them, because that's when one of my, near and dear to my heart, one of the things I want to achieve is to help people, without the social and the cultural capital to to be able to move comfortably in the professional space.
[00:13:27]
[00:13:27]Scott Maderer: [00:13:27] I'll share another one of those weird life gap moments. So the other day, my, my wife was driving to the post office. My 17 year old son is in the passenger seat. She handed him an envelope and a stamp and said, we need to mail this, put the stamp on the envelope. And he starts to stick it in a random spot on the envelope.
[00:13:47] And she's no. You have to put it here on the, he'd never put a stamp on an envelope. As he says, in today's world, he doesn't have to do that.
[00:13:55]Guang Ming Whitley: [00:13:55] Yeah. We have one on, we have one on mailing, a letter or a package. We have one writing, a check and then [00:14:00] also the parts of a check because people don't realize that their account number and their routing number is at the base of the check.
[00:14:05] And there's just also, you never know when you're going to need to write a check. It's a skill you need to have, even if you're only writing one check a year,
[00:14:11] Scott Maderer: [00:14:11] yeah. Which, even, I don't write hardly any checks anymore, but, but I didn't grow up at a time when I knew how to do it because I had to do it.
[00:14:18]So going off of that same idea and again, I have a 17 year old son, so not only because of my education background, but also because of. Talking to him and dealing with him right now and the choices that he's making, we often tell young people and it's the question.
[00:14:32] Everyone asks him right now, what are you going to do? W where are you going to college? What do you know, what kind of job are you going to have? What are all of these things that we put all this pressure on young people to climb the ladder of success? But there's a lot of different assumptions, I think that we make how do you look at the journey that young adults are making today and how does some of this work that you're doing, help them navigate?
[00:14:57] That kind of mess that [00:15:00] comes up at that age?
[00:15:01]Guang Ming Whitley: [00:15:01] We definitely try to reframe it, like with the ladder, there's only one path there's only room for one person and there's only one journey to the top. That's the ladder is. And so our tagline is actually climbed the lattice. And our website, lattice climbers.com because we want to encourage people to reframe their thinking.
[00:15:17] We're all in it together. We're all on this lattice and we're all at different places on it. And there's opportunities within the lattice to be helped by others and to help others. And so we're really trying to teach people that it's a very collaborative. Journey that you're on. And that your network is going to have a huge impact on that journey as you progress on the lattice and that you may move sideways, you may stay in the same place for a while, or you may reach a point on the lattice where you're perfectly happy and comfortable and content, and you don't need to be continually, you can enjoy where you are rather than be continually striving for something new or something different.
[00:15:50] And that really, I think is personality based. And I think, for young people. These days, they need to understand that they're blessed with longevity. [00:16:00] Statistically speaking, we are all blessed with a lot more longevity than we had in the past. And so this traditional three-stage life of, education career retirement.
[00:16:09] Is really not going to be the case for most people, you're going to have different phases. You're going to have different segments and you need to lean into the segment that you're in. And then think about what you want your next segment to look like. And before you move on to that, and you may be changing fields, you may be, jumping, industry's changing, people don't stick with one company.
[00:16:29] My dad was with one company for his entire career, and then he retired and, I think my husband's been with three or four by this point. Where we've been moving every five years or so. I think that the younger generation really needs to learn to be agile and flexible and adapt.
[00:16:43] And I think that's one of the key things that we're trying to do with the Nia is to give them the tools, to feel competent, to be able to move and adapt in the professional
[00:16:54] Scott Maderer: [00:16:54] world. And I think, so all the research shows that what you just said about, one career. [00:17:00] One generation ago.
[00:17:01] And then, your generation might that there's that, that four or five, seven kind of thing. And I have every expectation that children are my son's generation and the generation after him. It's probably going to be seven, 10, 12, 15, it, I think it's increasing that we're changing careers, changing directions more in some ways.
[00:17:22] So there's probably even more need for flexibility today, then. Even just 20 years ago, even as 10 years ago as well.
[00:17:30] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:17:30] Oh, yeah, I think, yeah, I think flexibility is key. I think you need to be a continual learner. There's no more end date to education anymore. I think it's constantly learning new things.
[00:17:41] And even as we've been, getting this company off the ground, I've had to learn so many new things along the way as we're doing things and pivoting and, learning new computer programs and working with the developer. It's. All so many new things to me, but it's been really good.
[00:17:55] And I feel like I was joking with my husband is I'm an old dog. Why am I learning these new [00:18:00] tricks? I think it's absolutely necessary to be willing to be a learner your entire life.
[00:18:04]Scott Maderer: [00:18:04] And I think that's, yeah, I think there's a lot of the most successful people will do that. They continually reinvent themselves relearn new skills.
[00:18:15] Change to a new direction, because at some point, again, even when things are changing and so you think about artificial intelligence and robotics and all of these things that are changing the nature of work at the same time, there's still a need for human beings that have skills and have abilities and do that.
[00:18:36] It's just sometimes the skills that we might have needed 10 years ago. Before the robots, began to do it. And the skills that you need today are going to be very different. It's not that people aren't needed. It's just, you need a different skill set. So if you're not continually growing technology outpaces you and you're left behind.
[00:18:54] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:18:54] No, absolutely very true.
[00:18:57] Scott Maderer: [00:18:57] So one of the questions that I like to ask [00:19:00] everybody, my, my brand of course, is inspired. Stewardship. Stewardship is one of those value statements that I believe in. It's something that I live my life through and look, I that's one of those key things that I look at everything through that lens.
[00:19:13] And yet, as I began to ask people what the stewardship mean to you? I keep getting different answers. Not bad answers, not good, just different. And so it's one of those words that I think can mean a lot of different things. And so I like to ask everybody, what is your definition of stewardship and how has it impacted you or what is it that definition mean or play out in your life?
[00:19:37] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:19:37] Yeah. So for me, stewardship is really about. How you utilize the gifts that you have been given? I'm sure everyone's heard the parable of the talents, right? Like you're given the talents and what you do with them is important. So I think for me, it's about my duty, not just to pursue my own things, but how I give back to my community and like how I use my.
[00:20:00] [00:20:00] Abilities and skillsets to benefit the greater, the greater community that I can, but it is also for me, one of the things I've had to learn is to think about my spheres of influence. There are certain things that I can control or that I can have influence over, and there's certain things that I cannot.
[00:20:15] So I think that really trying to assess your assess that, cause I think a lot of times people. Think of stewardship and they think I've got to change the world. I've got to do something radical, change the world, those kinds of things. And I think what people don't realize is that little things can have big impact.
[00:20:31]You're constantly making ripples in the pond and you sometimes never know how those things are going to come to fruition in other people's lives, at some point down the road. So I think. For me, stewardship is really about how you take what you have been given and how you use that to give back.
[00:20:47]Scott Maderer: [00:20:47] So now what are the easy questions of the show? He says jokingly, for some reason, everyone thinks this is a hard question. I don't know. If you could travel into the far future, let's say we invented a machine and I could get you to [00:21:00] move 150 years into the future a hundred years into the future.
[00:21:03] And you could look back on your life. What are the impacts that you hope you've had on the world?
[00:21:11] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:21:11] Yeah, that's a really hard one. That's a hard one because of course you're like, I hope I changed the world, I think for me, I hope I changed some individuals along the way. I hope that through things that I have done the work that I'm doing with the Nia, the volunteer work that I do.
[00:21:26] That I could have some kind of impact. So for example, I am a volunteer with a program called the American Legion, auxiliary, California, girls state. So I run our alumni foundation and, I volunteer at the program. It's a week long civic engagement program for young women. They're all rising high school seniors.
[00:21:42] And they were also another source of inspiration for the work I'm doing with the Nia. But I've been blessed to have been invited to be a speaker at this event. And I always talk to them about the importance of networking. I talk about the importance of appropriate attire. Since that is,
[00:21:59] Scott Maderer: [00:21:59] I was gonna say, [00:22:00] do you have pictures of that one that
[00:22:01]you burned? All of those I'm sure.
[00:22:04] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:22:04] Third thing that I always say, and I hope, and I've received feedback from some of the women that this has really impacted them. The young women is I always say if you're going to have a life partner, choose that life partner well, that life is too short to be with someone who doesn't value.
[00:22:18] You doesn't respect you, doesn't cheer you on. And if you're never going to achieve the success that you deserve, or that you're seeking, if you are partnered with someone who is not on board with that, and it's going to support you in that. And so that's, one of the key messages I try to impart, because I think especially as you're a young person Starting out.
[00:22:37] And we, I think most people want to have a life partner, but sometimes you fall into relationships that are toxic or that are just not quite the right relationships. And I would say, this is the one area of your life where you can be completely selfish and really. Choose the right person and have them choose you.
[00:22:52]And so I think that for me, the impact I hope to have is that, people will look back and say, you know what, that nugget of information or me passing [00:23:00] on live your life in segments, and that helping someone who's in a segment that may be a difficult segment and they can reframe it and think this is just a period.
[00:23:07] This is just a phase that will be a new segments. Soon just the ripple effect, I'm, I hope that, the butterfly wings flap, and then there's like a hurricane somewhere else. But you never know. So one story from that came out of girls' state was this was years ago in the MySpace era.
[00:23:21]But there was a young woman when they were all talking about colleges, And where they were going to go. And then one girl was very quiet. So I spoke to her to try to draw her out and say what about your plans? And she's no, I can't, my parents didn't have any money. They didn't go to college.
[00:23:34] Like I can't go to college. And I was telling her, Oh no, there's so many paths. Like my father went to community college first, before he went to college because he didn't have any money. So he could save up for a few years. Then he transferred into Caltech. Like he, he had a great path, started at community colleges.
[00:23:48] Like you are. You are here at girls state, you are a top flight candidate. You absolutely need to go to college. So we became friends on MySpace and then it was I think three or four years later that she messaged [00:24:00] me and she said, I took your advice. I went to community college and I just wanted to let you know, I've been accepted as a transfer to UC Berkeley.
[00:24:09] And I'm headed there in the fall and that conversation changed my life. And I was like, that's amazing. That is wonderful. And I know for so many of the counseling staff at girls state, we've had these kinds of conversations with these young women. We've had these impacts, which is why so many of us go back and volunteer every year.
[00:24:25] In fact, I have friends who've negotiated a week ago. Of time off into their contracts with their companies so that they can go volunteer at the girls state program. So I think for me, it's just the ripple effect. It's just trying to be a positive influence to have a positive impact, and then hope that all the tiny little things add up to something, a beautiful picture that I won't fully be able to see.
[00:24:47] Scott Maderer: [00:24:47] Absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, it's similar to some of the work that I had when I was a teacher and then I've done. And since then in volunteer capacities as well in different places, it's [00:25:00] interesting sometimes how saying we can say something that we don't necessarily even think of is that big or that life changing.
[00:25:06] And then occasionally you get the person that comes back to you a year or five years later. And shares the impact that it had, because I also think there's probably thousands of those conversations we have that we never hear. And it's remembering that too, because not everyone comes back and tells you, you made a difference,
[00:25:25] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:25:25] but it's I was sobbing as I was reading it.
[00:25:27]
[00:25:27] Scott Maderer: [00:25:27] I was tearing up as you were telling this story. Cause I taught in one of the districts I taught in was one of the lowest socioeconomic districts in the whole County and the other place I taught. Was a very exclusive private school for very high end. So I've literally seen both ends of the spectrum.
[00:25:47] And yet what's interesting is the sum of those sorts of things that you're talking about exist in both of those environments. They just express themselves in different ways.
[00:25:57] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:25:57] Oh, definitely. Yeah. Everyone has different [00:26:00] skills gaps, and that's why for what we're doing with the NAEA, we're having a quiz at the beginning, so that it assesses where your gaps lie, because maybe you've got your sleep habits totally under control.
[00:26:09] And then you don't need any modules that are related to that, right? Yeah.
[00:26:13] Scott Maderer: [00:26:13] So you can find out more about Aniah over@thelatticeclimbers.com. Along me is also active on LinkedIn as at GM hyphen. Whitley. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
[00:26:29]Guang Ming Whitley: [00:26:29] I think that the sooner that you can adjust and shift your focus and your definition of success and achievement.
[00:26:37]The better you will like the more content that you will be with life. I went through a rough patch where I, the only thing that I was doing was taking care of kids. And I realized that I never viewed raising four children as an accomplishment. I viewed it as baseline. And if I wasn't achieving or doing or [00:27:00] accomplishing beyond that baseline, then I didn't feel that I was adding value.
[00:27:05] To the world and to, to society in general. And so for me to have that shift in focus and saying, you know what, no raising four kids is a huge accomplishment. This is something that is important. I think that people, wherever you are in life like the impact that you're having, like there is a sense feel that you are enough, I think that's what I would say is that feel that you are enough, that you are doing enough.
[00:27:27] I think that, in this, in today's world there's a lot of pressure to do and to be. More. And I think that sometimes you can say, you know what, for right now I am enough and this is enough. And then when you are ready to take that next step or you plan for that next step, then you can move on to the next segment.
[00:27:46] But I think sometimes we all need a little bit of rest and a little bit of time to regroup before we move on to the next thing.
[00:27:53]Scott Maderer: [00:27:53] thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we [00:28:00] challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.
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