*****Warning: Explicit Language*****
Today’s podcast is fire! You only have two choices in life: lead or be led. And no one knows it better than the one and only Sean Whalen. He’s an author, podcaster, and influencer. Does failure really exist? As Sean explains, everything that has happened in his life, no matter the situation, good or bad, has always been a learning experience. Hear more about his battles, the raw truth about how to defeat your demons, and how he has been able to help countless people improve their lives, business achievements, and succeed! Be the lion!
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Sean Whalen doesn’t believe in failure. Every time we make a mistake we learn something, and that’s a success! We talked with the Lions not Sheep founder about getting out of our own way, putting our well-being first (then giving back to others), and giving ourselves permission to feel all of our feelings and show up authentically. In this podcast excerpt, Adam Nugent asks him what his greatest challenge is, and he gives a surprising answer.
AN: One of the things that people always ask you is, “What’s your greatest challenge?” And it’s the same answer every single time. One word
SW: Me. A hundred percent.
AN: Expound on that.
SW: Everything starts and stops with me. I am my greatest challenge. I’m my greatest advocate. I’m my greatest victor. I have found that I spent a lot of my life looking externally for remedies and solutions. And you know, the challenge is “Who do I have to become?”
I had a really cool experience that kind of led me into this. I was walking with one of my mentors years ago, down in Laguna Beach, and there was this house that was for sale. And the conversation came up about this $26 million house. [It] turned really, really interesting . . . about what type of man lives in this house. And the question that came up with my mentor and I was, “Who do I have to become to live in a house like this?” And it was in that moment, that period of my life, when I started looking at the challenge to buy a $26 million house as nothing to do with external—it’s everything internal.
Because the guy who lives in a $26 million house probably does things radically different than a guy that lives in a $260,000 house. What does he eat? What’s his morning routine? What kind of books does he read? These all seem very elementary and rudimentary things to people, but as I started looking at my life, spending most of my life externally validating was why I wasn’t where I was, and why I wasn’t happy.
I started looking at myself as the common denominator and saying, “Everything starts and stops with the me.” So, if I’m struggling with something, I’m not struggling with that thing, I’m struggling with me. There’s an internal battle with something happening, whether it’s love, whether it’s connection, whether it’s a business, whether it’s a problem, a solution, whatever. So, now I look at it and say, “If this is something that I want, who do I have to become to have that?”
Visit lionsnotsheep.com to learn more about Sean Whalen.
► You’ll also like: Episode 47: Take Ownership with Craig T. Smith
