High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 582: The Power of Purpose with Richard Leider, Bestselling Author & Keynote Speaker

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

“Why do you get up in the morning?” For more than four decades, Richard has pioneered the way we answer that question. From fast-growing start-ups, to established organizations, universities, summits, and conferences, his message has taken him as a keynote speaker to all 50 states, Canada, and four continents. Along the way, Richard has written ten books, including three best sellers, which have sold over one million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. Repacking Your Bags and The Power of Purpose are considered classics in the personal growth field. Richard is founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company and a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s acclaimed Center for Spirituality and Healing. Richard holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and is a National Certified Counselor. In this podcast, Cindra and Richard talk about: Impact of crucial life events on finding purpose The role of purpose in enhancing health, happiness, and longevity. Practical strategies for discovering personal purpose through daily actions.   IGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/582 FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Cindra Kampoff, and thank you so much for joining me here today for episode 582. This episode includes a high performance mindset short, which includes just a 15 or so minute excerpt from our most popular episodes of the podcast over the years.

It's short, to the point, value-added episodes, and this is from episode 333 from over 250 episodes ago and is one of my absolute favorite episodes. In this episode, I talked to Richard Leiter, the author of The Power of Purpose. I read Richard's book after a life-changing event where I was at the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. It woke me up to my purpose being just a couple of blocks from the bombing. And when I returned, I read Richard's book. And it was absolutely life-changing for me. And in this episode, I talked to Richard about my experience reading the book, delving into my understanding of my own purpose. And we also talk about some really incredible stats about the power of purpose, including that your purpose helps you live up to seven to ten years longer, that we have 1,441 purpose moments in one day. He also shares the napkin test that

you can use to find your gifts, passion, and values. And Richard really answers the question, why do you get up in the morning? For more than four decades, he's pioneered the way we answer this question. He's written 10 books, three bestsellers including repacking your bags and my favorite the power of purpose he has a master's degree in counseling and is a national certified counselor and if you'd like to after you listen to this high performance mindset short if you'd like to listen to the full episode you won't be disappointed it's episode 333. All right, without further ado, let's bring on Richard. In 2013, I was at the Boston Marathon bombing, and I remember sitting in my hotel room after the bomb. I wasn't sure if there was a bomb in our hotel, and I remember asking myself three really powerful

questions. Why am I still here? What difference do I make? And why do I do what I do? And it was life-changing for me. When I got home, I first read this book by Richard Leiter called The Power of Purpose because I was really searching for my purpose and what it was. And I remember reading it, laying on my couch on a Saturday morning, searching for my purpose. This book and this man today fundamentally changed my life. And he is on with me today. Talk about a pinch me moment. And as I was listening, I was taking notes like a crazy person. So take your notebook out. This is the man to listen to and learn from related to purpose. So give us a little insight into your passion and what you do. Well, my passion since the mid-60s, so I've been at this a long time,

is the question, why do we do what we do? And so the whole purpose is the answer to the question, why do you get up in the morning? And I had many fortuitous encounters that sort of awakened me to this kind of thing. And like your experience at the Boston Marathon, for example, that we chatted about briefly, right out of graduate school, I met Viktor Frankl, who wrote Man's Search for Meaning. And I spent a week with him. I wasn't one-on-one with him. I was in a group, but I mean, I was transformed in that meeting because Man's Search for Meaning, he was in a concentration camp. And he said, you know, the key, not the A key to survival was having a reason to get up in the morning, beyond yourself, beyond your own survival. And I was so moved by that, I decided that was my life's work at that

point. And so that was a fortuitous encounter that led me to my passion of helping others unlock the power of purpose. What was that like to, I mean, I've read his book, I've studied his book and his work. What was it like to be impacted by that and to be in his presence? Well, I mean, he's, I don't even know what to, it's so transformative because, you know, his book's been sold in how many languages and has influenced so many people. But I think what really struck me was the deep credibility of having, he said, don't ask what is your purpose. Ask this question. What is life asking of me now?

Like right now in this situation. So he would get up in the morning and give somebody else a kind word, a hug, a crust of bread. And he was also rewriting his own book, which his wife had sewn into the lining of his coat. And the coat, of course, was gone. They didn't know where they were going or what was up for them. So when they got shipped in a box car, his whole family was killed, by the way, Cindy, his whole family. He's the only one who survived. And when he was liberated from Auschwitz, he weighed 87 pounds. He went back to Vienna, Austria, where he was a psychiatrist slash neurologist. When he healed, he sat down and wrote Man's Search for Meaning in nine days. And he said the last, he said this, and this is the key to the mindset. And I know you're all about mindset, performance mindset. And he said, the key to this is the last

of the human freedoms is choice. It's to choose what you want the next moment or your life to be about. And so that human freedom, that choice is what you and I both deal with. And that's the choice between stimulus and response. We decide what that response is going to be. And our mindset has everything to do with that. And that's what he would say as well. And think about the dire circumstances, though, which he, that was revealed to him. Wow, powerful. You know, so we have so many commonalities. I know you went to Gustavus Adolphus. What a great college.

Yep. And some work there with their tennis team and football team. Just great people. At what point did this happen in your, you know, where you already graduated? Actually, I'm a distinguished alumnus from there. And I was a hockey player. Oh, wonderful. But while I was there, I was, I've written about this actually in The Power of Purpose. I wrote the story of my advisor at Gustavus. I read, yeah. Yeah. So I was not clear about purpose at that point in the way

that we're talking about it today, but I was a psychology major and a theology minor, a religion minor. And somewhere between those two, there was the question of why are we here? What are we doing? What's the point of the exercise? So experimental psychology and all of those other things were, I had to do, but what really got me going was the bigger questions. So I started there, but I went to graduate school in counseling psychology. And I actually studied Frankel, but not, I mean, he was one of many, many. And so when I got out, I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. You know, you'd think you'd figure that out between psychology undergrad

and a counseling psychology graduate degree. But it's always about other people, right? So I saw that Frankel was speaking or doing a seminar in San Diego where they were thinking of creating a Viktor Frankel Institute, which never happened. But anyway, that's how I got there. And I went on from there to, in 1969, I met Abraham Maslow and the Maslow hierarchy of needs and all of that, which you probably are very familiar with and your listeners might be. But Frankel and Maslow actually, before Maslow died a year later, And before he died, he admitted that the top of the pyramid was not self-actualization. It was, in fact, purpose. And so his wife went on to write a book called The Farther Reaches of Human Nature,

which sort of admitted that everybody quotes, in terms right now with COVID-19, everyone quotes the Maslow hierarchy, but they miss the fact that purpose is at the top, self-transcendence. Right. Yeah. I didn't know that either. Hi, this is Cyndra Kampoff, and thanks for listening to the High Performance Mindset. Did you know that the ideas we share in the show are things we actually specialize in implementing? If you want to become mentally stronger, lead your team more effectively and get to your goals quicker, visit freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free mental breakthrough call with one of our certified coaches. Again, that's freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free call. Talk to you soon.

I came to read your book. mentalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free call. Talk to you soon. Came to read your book. It was a very pivotal moment in my life. I had heard about your book before I went to the Boston Marathon in 2013. I was in a workshop with a coach and she was describing your work. Her name is Diana Gabriel. And I think maybe she had attended a workshop that you were in. And the Boston Marathon experience was, I think, really a defining moment in my life for me to understand my purpose. So I'm a marathoner and ran the race in 2013. It was one of the best performances I've ever had. And I was down near the finish line.

My hotel was a block away from the finish line. And so I was right in the middle of the bombing. So I finished 45 minutes earlier. And I remember just quietly sitting in my hotel room when we didn't know if there was another bomb in our hotel. Right. You know, I didn't literally, I didn't know if I was going to get home to Minnesota to see my boys and they were kindergarten and second grade at that point. And my race didn't matter, Richard. It didn't matter that I had just ran a personal best. I remember these questions just running through my mind and it's like, you know, why am I still here? What am I meant to do? Am I living really on purpose? And do I need to make

changes with what I'm doing right now? And it was a moment in my life that it was deeply connected to my purpose and it changed the trajectory of my career. I wouldn't be doing, I wouldn't have a conversation with you right now. I wouldn't be a keynote speaker. I worked with the Vikings for four years and it was something that I always wanted to do, but that was really scary. Yeah. Yeah. Out to that, that moment. And when I got back, I was reading everything I possibly could about purpose. And your book was the first book I read. I remember like laying on my couch on a Saturday morning, reading your book, right? And I'm grateful I found it because it gave me a lot of clarity on where my life was supposed to go. So I'm incredibly grateful for your

contribution to the world, because it really helped me in that moment just get clarity on what I was doing and where I was supposed to go next. Well, the crucibles of life, of which that was one, are often the times that we wake up or we're awakened to our larger questions. And so that's a great story. Not a great story, but it's a great example of purpose. I did a PBS special a few years ago. And the PBS special was based on the book, The Power of Purpose. And it was shown in hundreds of cities across the country. And part of doing a PBS special, which is a fundraiser, is you get to go out to these cities,

six of the cities, not all of them, and you get to do our, you know, if people pledge at a certain level, they get a workshop with you, in addition to a DVD and a book and things like that. Whole families, Cindy, would show up at the workshop. The grandparents, the parents, the kids, et cetera, even the grandkids at some point, they were all at a crucible or a purpose moment in one way or another, because I said, what are you all doing here? And they said, well, I'm retiring, and I got fired or laid off, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. And so it was, I think what you point out here, and what I would suggest to you is this, that purpose is not a luxury. Purpose is fundamental to health, to healing, to happiness, to longevity, even. People with purpose tend to live seven to

10 years longer. The science of purpose is very clear now. And also to high performance, people who have a clear why tend to do better on the how. Yes. I see that. I see that from my observations of the best performers, you know, in particularly in sport, but I appreciate what you said is like, it's, it's not a luxury, it's fundamental. So let's dive in. So this is the book that I read. And you have several others. And you can

see my tab. There's a whole new third edition of that book out now, by the way. I know, I saw that. And the new edition, the last chapter is, Can Science Explain explain purpose? And the statement I just made about it being fundamental, I can now back that up. I could before, but hugely because the neuroscience labs, purpose in the brain, purpose in health and healing, et cetera, it's self-evident now. It's no longer just anecdotal that it'd be a good idea to have a purpose. It is now like, you want to live longer? You want to be healthier? You want to be all these things. You want to sleep better. Have a reason to go to bed and a reason to wake up. So I hear a lot of people who are searching for their purpose

and maybe aren't really clear. So what advice would you give to people who are maybe feeling that way and want to just get started understanding what their purpose might be? Great question. And here's the practice. You take out a post-it and you put two words on the post-it, grow and give. Okay. And you put that post-it on your mirror. That, Cindy, is the universal default purpose. If you're growing and giving every day for a week, you'll know at the end of the week what your purpose is. Because grow and give is a purpose. And so if I get up in the morning and say to myself, what is my intention for today, my aim, how am I going to grow and give is a purpose. And so if I get up in the morning and say to myself, what is my intention for today? My aim, how am I going to grow and how am I going to give today? And then

at the end of the day, before you go to bed at night, you look at that post-it again and say, it's like any good trainer. How did you do? Did you show up at the gym today? Did you do your exercises? Well, the purpose exercise or the purpose practice at the end of the day is how did I grow and how did I give today? And you'll, you'll note that purpose is a feeling. It's not just an abstract concept that I felt better when I grew and gave, when I practiced growing and giving today. And so I know that you're all about grit and grit and grit is really, to me, it starts with why am I doing what I'm doing? Do I have a reason for grit? Yes. That's what I think too, that this purpose is part of grit. And if you're not sure why you're doing it, you can't really stick with it, which is what

grit really is. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. See you next week.