Hey, what's up, champions? This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you back to another fire episode. Today we're starting something that I'm super excited about. Over our next three episodes, we're starting a mini series on personal agency. You know, on this podcast, we focus on three main areas. We focus on leadership, business strategy, and personal development. And when we talk about personal agency, that's at the very epicenter of personal development. But it's something that impacts every area of your life. My heart's desire is to equip you with the tools you need and the knowledge set and mindset you need to connect with your best life and connect with your best performance and achieve your highest, highest fulfillment in life and start to get the outcomes in life you're hoping for. Well, today we're going to start to dive into this and I'm going to take you through what I believe are six pillars of personal agency. And I'm fired up for today, and I pray you are also. Get ready. This is your captain speaking.

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We have clear skies today with no winds, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight. However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the right airline. As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success. Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do as we too are pumped for today's flight. We understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today. We recognize by choosing to fly Nil Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before. Enjoy today's flight. Be blessed and remember, the best is yet to come.

What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective. For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Why?

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing. I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership and technology. I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO. CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm. My number one passion is people and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential. If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business, leadership or inner potential to the next level, then strap in because I'M locked in and all in. This is the Executive Perspective.

Hey, what's up, champions? This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you back to the Executive Perspective. Today we're going to be starting what I consider to be a three part mini series and we're going to be breaking down personal Agency and exactly what that is and why it's important. You know, on this podcast, we focus on three main areas. @ all times, we focus on leadership, business strategy, and personal development. When we talk about agency or personal agency, that's a topic that dives deep into the area of personal development. In fact, I will tell you that it's at the very epicenter of personal development. You know, many people are still coming to understanding of what exactly personal development is, and there are others who've been doing it for many, many decades. There's a lot of big people who've already gone out and been frontiering on this and they've done it for a long time. But personal development is basically when you're working on yourself and you're growing your abilities that you can achieve and do more. It's when you're constantly focusing on working on yourself. Now, here at the Executive Perspective, we talk about moving in one direction, and the one direction we move is forward and upward. Everything we do here at the Executive Perspective is designed with you in mind. It's designed with trying to help you accomplish more, be more and do more in life, to have more joy and happiness in your life, more satisfaction and more success. Our desire, my desire is to help you connect with the very best version of yourself by also helping to connect with your very best performance. I believe in congruence, and I want to help you be congruent in life with the things that matter most to you. The things that you desire to do the most, to be the most, the things that bring you the most satisfaction. You know, sometimes you hear phrases out in the world like if you find something you love to do, you'll never work another day in your life. And there's a lot of truth to that, but there's different layers of it. And what I want to help you with today is what I'm going to refer to as six pillars of personal agency. Now, I'm going to tell you that these are not the only six that are out there. And depending who you listen to, there's different ones that you'll study or do or that they'll teach on. But I want to cover over the next three series, and I say three series, but the next three episodes, we're going to cover a deep dive into what I refer to as the six pillars of agency. We're going to start with that today and then we're going to do a deep dive the rest of the time. And so we got three of them in total. Now today, what we're going to focus on is the six pillars of agency. But I want to help introduce you to what the core message of personal agency is so you can help understand why it's so important to you in every area of your life. But especially in the three main areas that we focus on here at the executive perspective, which again is leadership, business strategy, and personal development. In personal development, agency refers to these things. It refers to your ability to make deliberate and effective choices. It also refers to either your ability to take actions that influence your thoughts, your behavior, and your future. It also is the sense of control you have over your life and and your ability to shape your own experiences. Agency involves having self efficacy, in other words, self efficiency, which is the belief in your capacity to achieve desired outcomes. You know, here at the executive perspective, we are constantly focused on outcomes within life. You'll hear me talk so often, even when I'm talking specifically within business strategies or if I'm talking in leadership, one of the things I talk about is that anything worth doing should also be able to be measured. And the way you measure things is by understanding ahead of time. It's what I consider to be the wisdom to see the end from the beginning and knowing and understanding what your desired outcome is before you even begin. If you're starting something and you don't understand what your desired outcome is, you're going to have a hard time measuring if you were effective or successful in whatever endeavor you're doing. The other thing I'm a big proponent of is that whatever we do should always go towards moving our needles in life. Whether that's if we have a set of goals or if we have a vision, whether if it's personal or business related, anything that we're doing should go towards moving the needles in those areas that we want to accomplish. If you're doing things that are considered to be good things, but they're not focused on moving those needles towards those goals or visions you have, then no matter how good those things are, those are what we consider noise. They're not productivity. In other words, it's not productive. You need to focus on the right things at the right times. So the first pillar I want to take you to today is referred to as Sense of control. Again, the first pillar that we're covering today is sense of control. Sense of control deals around the belief that your choices matter. You know, what you have to understand is that if you don't think your choices matter, or if you don't think your choices have impact in the areas of your life that you're wanting to do or change or impact or influence, then you're going to feel like you have no self control over your life. In fact, you're going to feel like you're just a puppet on someone else's hand, meaning that they're controlling what you do. Your choices make no difference. Your choices have no impact. If you want to take self control over your life, the first thing you do is you start focusing in the belief that your choices matter, that your choices have impact. I will tell you, from this vantage point, if you also believe that your choices matter, you'll start to become more selective on the choices you make. It's not about self doubting yourself. It's not about self, you know, judging yourself twice or doubting yourself, or, you know, things of that nature where you're like, I have a hard time, I'm becoming indecisive. It's not about those things. It's about understanding your choices matter. And as you understand your choices matter, then you also understand that when you make choices, not only do they have consequences, but they also have longevity. In other words, when you make choices, they're speaking into your future. They're effective in shaping the outcomes of your future. The other thing that you have is what you have is what's referred to sometimes as victim versus ownership mindset. What do I mean by that? Well, so many times in life we have people who, they were either playing the victim or they're playing the ownership mindset. Specifically, I'm talking about in the areas of their life, their personal development, the quality of their life, but also whether it be their careers, their business, whatever it is. You know, if you have a victim mentality, then you're going to be believing or viewing yourself that everything always happens against you and often happens in spite of you, meaning that it works against you and it's almost like favor working against you, not for you. But when you have what we refer to in personal development as ownership mindset, that means you understand that things may not always be good, but if you're living out something that you do not like and you want change, the power is in your hand or in your mindset to change that situation. Now, you may not be able to change it overnight. But with the right choices and the right decisions and understanding the new outcome you want to create, you can start making choices that move you in the direction of your desired outcomes, and your life can begin to improve and get better. These are powerful, powerful principles of personal agency. Now, our first leadership truth bomb of the day for you is you may not control the outcome, but you always control the input. Man, that means something right there. Now, I don't want to sound contradictory to what I said a minute ago, because I'm talking about shaping your outcomes. But no matter how much you try to shape your outcomes in life, you can't always guarantee you're going to get the exact outcome that you want. But what you can control is the input that goes into it. But what I'm going to tell you in life is that the more you control the input, the more you control the narrative about what goes into your decisions, the more predictable your outcomes become. And I'm going to tell you that rather than living life by chance or just circumstance and just hoping it rolls and falls in your favor or goes your way this time, you stop living your life by the concept of being lucky, and you start understanding that you have agency or ownership over your life, and that by putting in the right input, you can start to have the desired outcomes that you desire within life. Now, the next pillar I want to take you to is our second pillar, and this is referred to as intentionality. Now, here at the executive perspective, if you're following us on a daily basis, you've probably been hearing us talk about this lately because we've been drilling home intentionality. In fact, it's such a big subject, in my opinion, that I've dedicated specific podcasts just around intentionality. Intentionality deals with setting deliberate goals and then aligning your actions toward those goals. I'm going to say that again. Intentionality deals with setting deliberate goals and then aligning your actions toward those goals. Let me give you some examples. I'm going to give you some real simple ones. Maybe this isn't what you're thinking of, but just some real simple ones. If you have a person that says that they want to lose weight, well, if they set the goal of losing weight. And remember, vague goals produce vague results. If you want to lose weight, the first question is how much weight by when? So let's say you say you want to lose £10 in the next month or the next 30 days. Fair enough. And for all my fitness people out there, if you're saying that's healthy, or unhealthy. That's not we're focusing on today. Let's just focus on what desired goals are. Deliberate goals. So 10 pounds and one month, 30 days timeframe. But if you constantly go out for cheeseburgers and fries and milkshakes, then your actions, they're not in alignment with your deliberate goals. If you're going to make deliberate goals, you got to have deliberate actions that support those goals. If you have another person that says that they want to become fit, well, getting in shape, your diet is a massive part of that. But also getting fit. You know, we're not talking about necessarily losing weight, but getting fit. Well, getting fit is going to require some exercise. And if you're unwilling to get off the couch and walk or run or jog or go to the gym or lift weights or resistance training or something, then you may have some challenges getting fit. In other words, whatever your deliberate goals are, you must also have actions that fall in alignment with them. The other thing is that living by design and not by default. What I mean by that? Well, when you live by design, that means you're strategically making choices that you want to live by. You're strategically setting goals with time frames that you want to meet. Now, you're not always going to meet the time frames that you want. You're not always going to hit the mark of the goal that you want. But you know, if your goal was to lose, for example, those 10 pounds we talked about in the next 30 days, if day 30 rolls around and you only lost seven, well, if you're focusing on the three you didn't miss, you're missing out on the wins because you're not focusing on the seven that you did. That stuff adds up and it's big. Now, I gave you a real simple and little goal. But what happens if this dealt with saving money? What if you told yourself you wanted to save $50,000 over the next year? Well, what if at the end of the year you only saved $32,000 or $35,000? That's $32,000 or $35000 more you have saved than the year before. Whatever your number is, whatever your goal is, it's about setting deliberate goals with actions that align up with them. Now, the next leadership truth bomb that I have for you today is what you do on purpose creates what others call potential. So many times in life you hear about people talking about the potential of others, but understand that what you do on purpose creates what others call as potential. When people look at you sometimes, when they're talking about potential. They're talking about the talent that you have in you, but sometimes the talent that they recognize in you. They didn't see all the late nights of studying. They didn't see all the early mornings of getting out and grinding and dedicating yourself to it. They didn't see the late nights at the office or putting in more work when everyone else was taking time off. They didn't see you grinding over that. But whatever you do on purpose oftentimes creates what other people see as potential. This is a big thing in personal development, but this is also a big thing when you're trying to advance and connect with your best performance. Now, the third pillar that I have for you is what I refer to as self efficacy. This is what we refer to as being self reliant or self sufficient. It's your self efficiency is what it is. But in order to be self efficient, that means you have to be able to have the capacity to measure yourself or understand what efficiency looks like for you. It's the belief and your ability to execute that's at the very core of self efficacy. It's the belief in your ability to execute. Knowing that when you set a goal or you have a vision or whatever the outcome is that you're hoping the deliberate goals or deliberate outcomes you're wanting, making sure that you align your actions with it, but then believing in yourself that you have the belief to execute your plan so that you can achieve that desired outcome. It's built by keeping promises to yourself. I'm going to say that again because that's a big one right there. It's built by keeping promises to yourself. If you can't keep your word to yourself, how are you ever going to keep it to others? And you know what a strange thing is that most people actually have an easier time honoring their word towards others than they do to their own self. Why? Because when it comes to their own self, their integrity is not in line as much as it is with others. Why? Because most people already have negative opinions of themselves or they're harder on themselves than they need to be. But when it comes to the approval of others and not wanting to let others down or disappoint others, sometimes for some people, it's easier to maintain and honor your word externally towards others than it is to yourself. But when you get to the point where you can begin to honor the promises you keep to yourself now you're building something with momentum that really matters. Now here's the next leadership truth bomb. I have for you, confidence isn't something that's found, it's built through, follow through. I'm going to say that again. Confidence in yourself and confidence in life isn't something that's found, it's something that is built through, follow through. Remember I talked about your ability to honor your word to yourself or keeping your promises to yourself. When you make promises to yourself and then you follow through and honor whatever those promises are. That's what's at the core of self efficacy when you're becoming self efficient. And as you do that, confidence also builds. Because the next time you say you're going to do something to yourself, your belief in your ability to get it done is much stronger. And when you rise to the place where you can believe your own words and promises and commitments to yourself, you are now an extremely high performer. Because all you got to do is point your direction, set your goal or your deliberate outcome, your deliberate actions you want to take, and then once you commit to that thing, you're going to come through on your promise. The fourth pillar I want to talk with you about is what's referred to as forethought. This is where you learn to anticipate consequences. Remember we talked about earlier that you can't always control the outcomes that are going to happen in your life, but you can control the input. And when you anticipate consequences, a better way of saying that, or another way of saying that is that when you start to make strategic decisions on your input, when you start to make strategic choices on your input, you can now start to anticipate the consequences of what those inputs are going to equate. In other words, you can start to have predictability within your life. And while you may not know exactly how it's going to unfold, or exactly what it's going to look like, or even exactly when it's going to happen, you'll begin to learn that you can anticipate the consequences. In other words, if you're saving that money like we're talking about earlier, or let's say you're building a business, and in your business, let's say it has some type of component like social media attached to it. Well, if you're going out and you're making, let's say you use Instagram or something like that, and you're making reels and you're making posts or carousels or things, and you're posting them on a daily basis and you're following a plan, maybe you went out and researched or even paid for a course and learned for or got a coach and learned a plan on how to do this well, you may not see those results overnight and don't be discouraged when those around you say that they are. But if you keep putting in the work the way you've designed your plan, over time you'll be able to anticipate the consequences of that and eventually you'll see your efforts pay off. Now, while you can't guarantee the outcome, and I certainly can't guarantee it for you, what you can guarantee is that putting in the input with the right decisions will help you lead to better outcomes that you hope to see than outcomes that are just and drift mode, meaning things that happen on default to you rather than for you. 4 thoughts also about making choices today that your future self will thank you for. You know, sometimes when I'm working on one on one coaching with my clients, I take them through exercises where I'm like, hey, let's say future self was able to come back and talk to you right now about this thing you're going through, this thing that feels so challenging or so difficult. What would they tell you about this right now? And I don't just ask them what they would say. I literally make them talk to themselves in that third person I make themselves. And it's and for some of them feels kind of wonky and weird and feels kind of silly sometimes, but it's always an extremely powerful exercise to take them through. And you'd be surprised the things that come out of their mouth. It's their future self that's talking to them, but it's the exact form of encouragement that they need to hear. Remember before when I talked about that when you can make promises and honor promises to yourself, that confidence is found? Well, as you do that, that's where this becomes real powerful. Now here's our next leadership truth bomb of the day. Wisdom isn't just knowing what to do, it's thinking past the moment. I'm going to say that again because I think this is they're all very important, but this is a really big one. Wisdom isn't just knowing what to do, it's thinking past the moment. And that's a significant one. I'm going to take you now to what I consider is our fifth pillar. And the fifth pillar is implementation. You got to now implement something. We're learning a lot of footwork, a lot of groundwork, but now we got to implement action is always greater than intention. I'm going to say that again. Action is always greater than intention. You know, sometimes you'll hear phrases that the graveyard is filled with good intentions, meaning that there are people who have finished their race here in this life. And when I say finish their race, let me say it in a different way. In that graveyard, there are those who finished their race and then there are others who died prematurely or died with their assignments incomplete. What's the difference there? Well, someone who finished their race is someone who fulfilled their purpose and they finished the assignment that God had for their life on what they were supposed to do. But while you have those who are in the graveyard, there are many more in the graveyard who either died prematurely, unfortunately, or they died without fulfilling their purposes and callings in life. Maybe they just never got started. They might have had all the talent or all the potential in the world, but all they were was filled with good intention, but they never had the action to back it. If you want to show up in life in a meaningful way, you got to have the action to back your intentions. In other words, actions are always greater than intention. Another thing of implementation is that clarity comes from execution. You hear me say that over and over again on this podcast, that sometimes when you're stepping out in the new realm of doing something, things don't feel real clear to you at first. But when you take that first step and then the second and then the third, things get clearer as you execute. Things get clearer as you take the steps. You take the first step and now things get clearer. You take the next one and then the next one. But as you execute, clarity begins to show. And it can sometimes be clarity of what's working or what's not working. But you'll never know if what's going to work or not going to work, or if you took the right path or the wrong path if you don't start to execute. But good performers, high performers, when you execute, you don't just execute blindly. You execute, you measure and you make adjustments. I'm going to say that again. You execute, you measure. In other words, you check the effectiveness of it and then you make adjustments. If it's not going that effective, you make your adjustments to fix that. If it's going very effective, that you can still fine tune it and make adjustments to make it even better. But you constantly go through that process. Here's our next leadership truth bomb for you today. Start right where you are. Action is the antidote for overthinking. I'm going to say that again because that's powerful. Start right where you are. Action is the antidote for overthinking stop overthinking, and stop second guessing yourself. And our sixth and final pillar that we're covering today on the six pillars of personal agency is self reflection. And this is a big one right here. Pillar number six is self reflection. I want you to look back in order to grow forward. I'm going to say that again as part of self reflection. I want you to look back in order to grow forward. I'm not asking you to live life looking in the rear view mirror. You know, if you're driving a car, if you always spend time looking in the rear view mirror of where you've been or where you're coming from, you stay looking in that rearview mirror too long, you're going to run into something in front of you because your eyes are not on the prize, your eyes are not on the road. That, or you're going to miss your turn or miss your exit or something. Or you're going to be going slower than you should because you didn't see the speed limit sign or something. But I'm not telling you to live your life in the past, but I want you to learn how to look at the past. In other words, how to measure where you come from, how to measure what you're doing to where you've been so that you can begin to grow forward at a faster pace. Another part of self reflection is success without reflection creates ego, not excellence. I'm going to say that again. Success without reflection creates ego, not excellence. Why? Because you'll just think you did it because you're something so special and so good. But when you reflect back on what made you successful, what worked and what didn't, that's where excellence is born. And as you do that, you stay more humble, but you also recognize what helps you connect with what worked, what didn't, and what could work best, better. That's a part of self reflection. And our final leadership truth bomb for you for today is if you never reflect, you'll keep repeating the same results. Again, if you never reflect, you'll keep repeating the same results. And if you want to grow, remember, on this podcast, we have one direction we move, and that is forward and upward. Guys, before I let you go today, I want to encourage you and let you know that Champion, I believe in you. I believe you have greatness on the inside of you. You just need to continue to build it up, develop it, cultivate it, and get it on the outside so others can see it. And whatever that thing is that you're assigned to do in life go out and absolutely smash it. Do your best on it because I believe in you. Champion. Guys, I want to invite you to swing by our website@neal Reyes.com where you can find all of our teachings and resources. In addition, if you're liking this podcast, please follow it and leave us a review so that we can help grow on podcast land. But until next time, thank you and have a blessed day.