Need Some Inspiration? Here are Five People You'll Want To Learn From

As we find ourselves into the second month of physical distancing in the United States, navigating through the changes that COVID-19 is bringing our way, it can feel lonely. We’ve all been collectively disrupted. We’re all on the launch point of an S Curve we didn’t choose. We're going through this together, but in many ways, we’re experiencing it alone.

This doesn't have to be the case–––at least not entirely.

Whenever I am trying to manage my way up a new S Curve, I look for people I can learn from, people who can both instruct and inspire. I read their books and listen to their podcasts––maybe even interview them. They remind me that I'm not alone.

Here are five people you may find inspiring too:

1. Susan David: Emotional Agility (Disrupt Yourself Podcast - Ep. 157)

The intensity of emotion that all of us are experiencing can bring up a host of issues. Susan David has spent her life studying how we can best work with emotion in our lives. Through personal experience, Susan discovered that our successes are based on how we navigate our inner worlds, thoughts, feelings, and self-talk; how we disrupt our mindsets.

In this podcast, she talks about her concept of emotional agility: “...being able to be with ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions, and our stories, in ways that are compassionate [and curious]”. She reminds us that emotions are neither bad nor good, but each has a function and can help us take control of disruption in our lives.

To Try: This week, you’ll probably have a hard day. You may start to feel intense emotions. When you do, instead of telling yourself, “I’m so stressed.” “I’m so anxious.” “I’m so sad.” – try an experiment and think, “I’m noticing that I’m having stressful feelings.” “I’m noticing that I’m sad.” Give yourself that space.

2. Dr. Tara Swart: Unlock Your Mind & Reach Your Potential (Disrupt Yourself - Ep. 156)

Tara grew up in London. Her parents wanted her to go to school and become a lawyer or a doctor. So, she chose to be a doctor. Later in her life, she realized that she never really thought about what she wanted to do or be when she grew up. Identity crisis soon took a couple of years of her life as she worked to re-train her brain to tell her that she could jump to a new S Curve and follow a new passion. She is now an executive advisor to business leaders throughout the world - and she loves what she does.

Tara disrupted herself and did so by training her brain. How can we train our brains to overcome obstacles during times of disruption? Tara can tell you more about this in the podcast. 

To Try: Our emotions get the better of us. We react in ways that we later regret. To be more in control, Tara recommends journaling what triggers these outbursts and then reviewing your journal to find historical patterns. This can help you consciously control your reaction the next time you’re in a similar situation, and not make things worse. She calls this an exercise in “reviewing ghosts from the past”.

3. Brené Brown: Called to Courage (Disrupt Yourself Podcast - Ep. 111)

Vulnerability is not a weakness, according to Brené Brown. After giving a TED talk about this subject, she was forced to make a decision, based on harsh feedback, ‘Will I give up on this idea, or not?’ The answer was no. One of Brené’s favorite quotes is from Teddy Roosevelt. He said “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who's actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, and who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, when [s]he fails, at least does so daring greatly.”

Times are tough. In this podcast, you can find the courage to stay in “the arena” and keep moving forward. 

To Try: When things are difficult, and you feel yourself engaging in negative self-talk, ask yourself, “Am I talking to myself like I talk to someone I love?”

4. Cali Yost: Reimagining Where and How We Work (Disrupt Yourself Podcast - Ep. 155)

What can you do now that your workday has been completely disrupted? Tip number one, listen to this podcast. Cali Yost is the CEO and Founder of Flex+Strategy Group – a company that helps leaders reimagine how, when and where their people work today and tomorrow.

In this podcast, Cali gives five tips on how you can help your organization to weather our current crisis and how you can take the things you learn into improving your culture in the future.

To Try: Keep it simple. Don't get bogged down in making your work and home life perfect. These are not normal times, and we need to give ourselves grace.

5. Keep Planting Cherry Trees (Disrupt Yourself Podcast - Ep. 153)

So. This isn't an interview. This is me talking. To you. But also to myself. Words said aloud come alive. When you want to be inspired, sometimes the best way to do that is to write down and then say those words out loud. In this episode, I talked about it may seem like we have lost all control when life is disrupted, but it isn't true. A western pioneer once said, ‘keep planting cherry trees’. It was to remind people that you may not see the fruits of your labors now, but someone, maybe you, will see it in the future.

To Try: Each day, take a step back to reflect, then take a step forward and make a plan for today. Then, at the end of the day, you will have gathered feedback. Did you do the things that you were going to do? Maybe there were two things, three things. Keep it very simple. Very minimalist. Did you do them? Did you not? If not, why not? Now adapt. And then make a plan for tomorrow. 

Which of these episodes were helpful to you? How did they instruct you? Inspire you? I'd love to hear in the comments.

Remember–––You have to move up the S Curve by yourself, but you don't have to do it alone.

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Whitney Johnson is the founder and CEO of WLJ Advisors, a boutique consultancy that helps leaders and the people they work with become fluent in the language of growth. Whitney is one of the leading management thinkers in the world, according to Thinkers50, the author of the bestselling Build an A Team and critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself, both published by Harvard Business Press. She is a world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning and an advisor to CEOs. She is a member of the original cohort of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches, and was selected as MG100 / Thinkers50 #1 Coach on Talent. Whitney has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2018, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times.