The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Seven Powerful Quotes to Help You Balance Your Life in 2025 | S4Ep13

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Over the past few years, I’ve pulled together seven focus areas for my life that I call the “7 Pillars”, of ownership, mindfulness, movement, boundaries, connection, sleep, and faith. Today on Seven Powerful Quotes to Help You Balance Your Life in 2025, I’m sharing quotes from seven of the most influential people I’ve heard speak, read books from, and worked with and how I apply these concepts in my life.Quotes from:Jocko WillinkAndy PuddicombeEmma McAdamJackson BaynardJohan HarriMatthew WalkerThe HospitalerGodspeed y'all.

Over the past few years, I've pulled together seven focus areas for my life that I call the seven pillars of ownership, mindfulness, movement, boundaries, connection, sleep, and faith. Today on seven powerful quotes to help you balance your life in 2025, I'm going to share the quotes from seven of the most influential people I've heard speak, read books from, and work with, and how I apply these concepts in my life. But first, please dial at your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and let's get started with the People Process Progress Podcast. Welcome back to the People Process Progress Podcast. I'm the host, Kevin Pinnell,

a project management leader by way of experience in the U.S. military, information technology, and public safety worlds. My professional experience combined with some personal challenges led me to listen to and read works from influential and impactful people that I'll talk about here on this episode and to try and find the tools that I needed to rebalance my mind, body, and spirit and to help maintain that balance during my life's, quote, normal operations, if there is such a thing. So let's jump into the first thing, which is ownership. So Jocko Willink on ownership, quote, extreme ownership.

Leaders must own everything in their world. There's no one else to blame, quote. And that is from Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership, How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win, that he wrote with his now partner in Echelon Front, Leif Babin. And here's how I apply this. I recognize that the concept applies to me first, right? Then to my family and friends, then to my professional life. So that means, am I in the shape I want to be in physically? Am I mentally stable? Am I in a bad

spot doing it to ask for help? Spiritually, am I putting the time in with what I believe as I should? And then when I look at my family and friends, am I treating them well? Am I giving them the time and understanding? Am I really being a positive influence in their lives? And then at work, what are areas of work I need to get better at? What are things I need to own more of, take action on, or sit back on? How to develop my team members? But it's on me to take that step and find solutions or ask others for help. We don't have to have all the solutions to take ownership. We just have to have the wherewithal to know that we take the ownership and then we find solutions.

The second of these seven pillars for me comes from Andy Pudicombe, who's on meditation. He's the co-founder of the app Headspace that I use often. And so he says, quote, meditation isn't about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It's about training and awareness and understanding how and why you think and feel the way you do and getting a healthy sense of perspective in the process. And that's from getting some Headspace, how mindfulness can change your life in 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes is what I try and do every day on the Headspace app. And how I found this most helpful to apply is that setting a calendar invite that says, get some Headspace.

On my work calendar, I set it as private. And at that time, as often as possible, unless something happens, then I'll move it. That's when I'm going to get Headspace. I'm going to put time in to practice mindfulness. And that can be it. You don't have to just be sitting still. That's what I do on the cool porch swing my son built me mostly or sometimes in my office, but it can be going for a walk, right? A routine guided by Andy, like I mentioned that I use on the headspace app, no affiliation through jujitsu

class or a tough workout, right? That's a focus on yourself and making yourself better. And it's a form of mindfulness or meditation. It's just not a still one you pictured. A lot of folks say, well, that's, I just can't calm my mind down enough to get there. And I get it. And it's not an overnight thing, right? You put some practice into it. The key is to set aside time for you and that's okay. The third is Emma McAdam on movement. And so she says, quote, move a muscle, change a thought. And I heard this from Emma McAdam when I was completing one of her courses. She's a licensed marriage and family therapist and hosts Therapy in a Nutshell on YouTube.

Amazing content. And I took a course of hers about reducing anxious thoughts, anxiety, those kind of things. I had a bit of that when I found out about a family member's poor health diagnosis. And it was super helpful. And I'd never heard that quote before. And I don't think she came up with it, but it's super helpful, right? And how I apply this is you're feeling anxious, start moving around. If stress is building up, get a workout in.

I try and do that before it builds up or we have that morning, maybe anxiety or stress. Get that workout out in the morning. If you're feeling down, go for a walk. And the key and what I found helpful and maybe many of you is exercise has been my most used and self-prescribed treatment for stress, anxious thoughts, depressed feelings, anger, sadness, preparation for physical events. And it's very helpful. In addition to it's made me a better husband and father and friend because I've put myself in a better position physically and through that mentally. And I'm aware of the physical and health benefits, right? And we should all be aware of that.

It reduces multiple disease factors. It improves cardiovascular health and much, much more. And it's not a panacea, as they say, but exercise and strength building and muscle building and VO2 max increasing, like how our lungs and stuff work, is more and more talked about openly as powerful or more powerful than a lot of medications folks take. That doesn't mean stop your meds, but it's super helpful. So it's one of, if not the most effective things for physical ailments, mental ailments, and it's an outstanding proactive action that we can all take. The next thing is boundaries. And this

is one of my good friends that I came up with in the incident management world, Jackson Baynard. And he said during planning and one of our things, quote, what you allow in your presence, you promote, quote, he's the fire chief at a fire department in central Virginia. And it really hit home because it speaks to if we're working with other folks and folks are just acting like crap to each other on the call or in person or poor behavior, bad decisions, we let it keep going. We're essentially saying, cool, let's just keep doing it. But when we're in a leadership position, it's our job to have that not happen. It includes being mindful of what we consume visually, audibly, physically, too. What I allow in my presence, what I'm watching, what I'm doing, setting clear expectations with colleagues. So if we're going to kick off a project, there's nothing wrong with saying we're going to work together, we're going to be open and objective conversations, we're going to treat each other respectfully, come from a place of positive intent.

Set those out there. Set the boundaries. Boundaries don't have to be negative. Like another great quote is no as a full sentence. That's kind of like a, Hey, you're too close, that kind of thing. But you know, when necessary to, you may have to reset someone's boundaries and push them back, right? When someone's getting, you know, out of line with you or with someone you're working with. So what you allow in your presence, you promote, if you allow positive interactions and good work,

even if it's direct sometimes in short, because you're on an emergency, that's fine. If you allow people to partake in gossip and negative talk and all that kind of stuff and talking over each other, and it's not good. So the fifth thing is connection. And this is from Johan Harian connection. And he says, quote,

to end loneliness, you need other people plus something else. You also need, he explained to me, to feel you're sharing something with the other person or the group that is meaningful to you both. You must be in it together. And it can be anything that you both think has meaning and value. That's from Johan Haryon's book, Lost Connections, uncoveringuses of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions. And this book was very impactful. It covers a lot of areas that folks that either have full-blown or whatever the right word is, kind of long-term depression or depressive moods. And we all get those sometimes. And I dove into this book to think of, I was really upset. And we've know, we've all had those times and this piece of connection was about a community that came together to stop a development and their

connection was putting work in, in the neighborhood. But again, it could be anything, right? I found as I've grown older, that I value much more the quality over the quantity of my friendships. And I'm sure many of you have as well. And as, as Johan Hari states, like people need other people in this modern era of remote work. It is easy to become disconnected. It's so easy. And it's not good for the human psyche, right? I found connections have made jujitsu and in my community and with friends and through friends of friends, um, have improved my connections and outlook on life and overall wellbeing. And I'll say for me, you got to put effort into it. And of all my pillars, this is my weakest and my most challenging.

And it may be for some of you, particularly as we work remotely and something I need to improve and we'll work on in 2025. Number six is Matthew Walker on sleep. Quote, the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. Quote, and that's from Matthew Walker. Why we sleep, unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. And that's from Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. And sleep hygiene was not a term I was aware of three or four years ago. And I faced a family illness and had, you know, dealing with past things and had horrible sleep patterns. And much of it was my fault.

I broke all the rules. I stayed up late. I ate and drank too late. I watched screens up until bedtime. I watched TV in bed. So as I kind of rebuilt this base of my sleep after particularly challenging time, I read more about sleep hygiene. And if you Google that, there's tons of resources and learn the importance of winding our minds down right before we go to sleep, how to set up your sleep areas, optimal sleep and healing. And that's hugely important because the good sleep can positively affect all the other stuff on this list and other areas of your life. And bad sleep, as you all know, if you've had a night or multiple

nights of bad sleep, negatively affects everything. So it is really worth putting in time looking up sleep hygiene. And the good thing is also when you get better at it, you don't have to be super militant about it. At first, it's very helpful to do that. Cool it down, lights out, chill out two hours before, et cetera. But then you've kind of re-baselined how you sleep and you sleep better and then you can relax a little. The seventh pillar for me is faith. And my best quote is from movies. I've loved movies forever. And this is from The Hospitaller in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. And he says, I put no stock in religion. By the word religion, I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action.

Encourage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves and goodness. What God desires is here, pointing to the mind, and here, pointing to the heart. And what you decide to do every day will make you a good man or not. End quote. For me, my faith is a deeply personal aspect of my life, and it's my own. I believe in cultivating a direct and honest relationship with God, where I'm free to question, learn, discern my own path, and encourage you all to do that in your own way. History provides many examples of how religious beliefs have been manipulated and misused to justify harmful actions. I'm committed to ensuring that my faith is a source of good in the world. I would prompt everybody else to do that as well. It's a guide

for personal growth, for compassion and commitment to living a life of integrity and meaning. And just as in the movie, you know, we can either do that or not. For me, I choose to, and we're all fallible. We're human, so we're going to fail. But faith rounds out and supports a lot of the other pillars of taking ownership for where I'm at, where I want to be, that regular meditation practice, which prayer is similar to, getting regular movement every day of some kind, I'm at where I want to be, that regular meditation practice, which prayer is similar to, getting regular movement every day of some kind, setting boundaries at work in my personal life for myself, making connections with other humans, sleeping regularly, sleeping well, cleaning up your sleep,

and then again, that faith. Thank you for listening to seven powerful quotes to help you balance your life in 2025. I hope these are, you know, in my two cents, help you develop your own ways to build up and strengthen your pillars for life. For more, go to peopleprocessprogress.com. Follow me on X and IG at Penelope KG. Visit the People Process Progress YouTube channel for fitness 15 seconds at a time, some cold plunge shenanigans and some jujitsu class after actions if you want to. And as you strengthen your own pillars, please let hope ignite that fire in your gut. Put plans together that guide you on your path and take action to transform your life

and those around you for the better. Godspeed, y'all.