Leverage Your Time Balance Your Life

New Year, New Season!

• Dr. John Ingram Walker, MD • Season 6 • Episode 1

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Welcome to Season 6 of Leverage Your Time Balance Your Life! (We started this podcast in 2023 and do two seasons per year.) Our mission with this podcast is to help you develop meaning and purpose by...you guessed it...leveraging your time and balancing your life! This year we plan to showcase a variety of life-affirming topics through insightful conversations, book summaries, and wisdom from powerful guests. Enjoy today's conversation about our hopes, dreams, projects, and goals for 2026.

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Want more resources? The Leverage Your Time Balance Your Life book is available on Amazon! Visit www.leverageyourtimebook.com to order the book, read the blog, and listen to the podcast.

Discover more about Dr. Walker HERE and Wende HERE


Wende:

Hey Dad.

John:

Hey, we're doing season six. Can you believe that? And we just kind of talked about a little of everything, kind of a high potpourri of things.

Wende:

Powerful potpourri. It's power packed. There's so much wisdom in this episode. I can't wait for people to listen to it. So we're so good.

John:

All right, here we go. Leverage your time Balance your life. Dr. Walker with my delightful daughter, Wende Whitus.

Wende:

Hey, have you missed us? We've been away for a bit. Hey, planning season six.

John:

Sixth season. This is our sixth season. We're catching up with Breaking Bad. I've been listening to the podcast Breaking Bad Insider. And it is fantastic. It really is.

Wende:

If you're a fan of that show, you must listen to it.

John:

It is and they have a lot of insider stuff. They have stuff about how to direct and the writing and the editing and even the locations, a lot of location stuff for me.

Wende:

Yeah, it was great.

John:

And so if you're interested in filmmaking, it's really excellent.

Wende:

Why are we pushing someone else's podcast? Let's get back to it.

John:

Hey, we're getting a lot of downloads, man. We're getting we're about to catch up with breaking bad. They better watch out. Uh we're we're doing pretty good.

Wende:

We really appreciate our audience listening, and we hope we add value to your week. And what we have such a goal to get this back to weekly and consistently, and usually it's me that's your fault. It's my fault.

John:

Here I've been sitting like the Maytag. Nobody knows what the but long time ago, long 40, 50 years ago, there was this commercial on Maytag washing machines. It's washing machines, right? Yeah. And it shows the show uh shows the Maytag repairman. And the commercial is the Maytag Retirement. Repair repair man? Repairman. It's just sitting there, and he's doing that, just sits there, and it shows him, you know, because there's nothing to repair.

Wende:

Oh, that's a good commercial. Yeah, it's a real good commercial. Everything works, so there's no reason to call the repair man these boards.

John:

That's a great commercial. But I was sitting, I was sitting there like the May Tag Retirement Man waiting for you. Yeah, retirement. Hey, maybe we need to race. You know, people are gonna think, why are we listening to this? The guy can't even talk. Um I have noticed though, by doing our podcast talking personal things, that it has helped me so much because I tend to get excited and race through my speech. And when I do that, I slur my speech. And it's very hard for me to pace. And the reason for that, now I when I'm giving a speech, I know to pause and that sort of thing. But when I'm talking, I don't want to bore anybody. So I talk real fast, and then also I get excited and I talk fast. And so I guess there's a pro and con to that because when you talk real fast, it gets people excited. But I noticed that some people can talk real fast and be and enunciate well.

Wende:

Well, they probably practiced a lot. Yeah, they probably they do all of their tongue twisters before they get on the radio.

John:

And I noticed that your voice is so good and clear. And we had Mimi on, and her voice. Mimi Sherman, yes. We have two Mimis. Mimi Sherman on, and her voice was so good, and she articulated things, and she talked fairly fast. I said, I wish I could talk a lot.

Wende:

She's very polished. I really love her.

John:

And you uh talk real well too. Thank you.

Wende:

Well, so what do we have in store for this season six of our podcast?

John:

I don't know, but we always decide about an hour before we do.

Wende:

Yeah, we like to take it easier and just go be spontaneous, which is such a delight.

John:

Talking about Mimi, talking about Mimi Sherman, you know.

Wende:

Oh my gosh, she was so she was more organized than we ever have been.

John:

It was a she had she sent questionnaires out what we're gonna do, blah. And then she brought a whole ream of paper that she never read because we got her talking spontaneously. And her talking spontaneously was so good. And if she had read it, it would have been bad. So spontaneity is so good, and you've got to have confidence to do that. But we're so good, I must say, we're so good about like helping people be loosey-goosey. I think so.

Wende:

You put people at ease.

John:

They put people at ease. Yeah.

Wende:

I was talking to someone today on a networking Zoom that I'm a part of, and they were their goal, their speaking goal was to be on some more podcasts, but it intimidated them, they said. And I said, Oh, it shouldn't intimidate you. Being on a podcast is the easiest thing. Oh, yeah. You just show up and if it's a good host, they will let you talk about what you know. And that is the magic, you know. If if the host is doesn't have an agenda and lets you talk about what you already know well, your subject matter is the easiest thing in the world.

John:

So and if they're interested in you, and we're always you and I always want to learn. Yes. So we've never had a guest who we we didn't learn something from, and every guest has been very good because they're talking about their interests. By the way, are you gonna be able to do the Zoom and learn how to transfer that into an MP3?

Wende:

Well, talk about a lifelong learning experience. So we had we did our first trial of a wonderful guest. Mike Durden. Mike Durden, we are going to get you on hopefully next next week. I'll have it all figured out. I've been super busy, no excuse, but I have been. You've been real busy. I've been real busy. Um, but we did our first Zoom guest, and we normally either do, well, we only do in-person. So, but this person, Mike, was from a different state.

John:

Steve, he was from Wisconsin. Yeah.

Wende:

And so we said, hey, Mike, we would love to have you on the podcast. We're gonna do this as a trial on Zoom. I'm sure it'll work. I did record the audio, but it's in a different format than the software I use would take. So I'm sure there's a way to convert that to the right format, and I'll figure it out and we'll get them. We'll get them on. We'll get them on. I just think combination of busy and lazy.

John:

I want to do more of those podcasts, distant podcasts. Now, there's probably a way to do that without zooming, I would think.

Wende:

Probably. I mean, there's other ways to do it too. There's other platforms. So we'll look into that. But we are gonna have a mix of guests. We're gonna have a mix of us talking about our productivity projects that we're working on, and then we'll have also we'll throw in, just like we have before, a book summary every once in a while. Good. I'm reading one that I'd like to do.

John:

Okay. What this book here?

Wende:

Yep, not today, but I brought it to show you. This is called the Productivity Project.

John:

Well, these are all the same, Wende.

Wende:

But, but here's his thing. So we'll talk about it another time. But I like this Chris Bailey, he was he's a very young um author, and he had a really cool twist on it. So he took a year, I believe it was right after graduate school, an entire year, to experiment with all of the great productivity hacks that you hear about. And he blogged about it, and he just, you know, and this book is his explanation of what worked for him and what didn't work and why. And there's some incredible nuggets in there. It's very funny. Oh, yeah. And it's just a great concept, I think, to um to I mean, have the luxury to take a whole year off just to experiment with it.

John:

Is he a millionaire or something?

Wende:

No, but uh, he wrote about it and blocked about it. And so I think he got a lot of um a lot of traction. Sponsors. Yeah, so yeah, and this book deal came out of it, so that set him up.

John:

But you know, I think these guys what they have scale at is getting sponsors for their programs.

Wende:

Maybe so.

John:

They are really good at marketing themselves. Yeah, they have to be anyway.

Wende:

So that was a I like this book, it was fun. And uh so we'll talk about that one time, and you maybe you'll have another book that you want to talk about. Oh, yeah, during season six.

John:

You know, when I I would really like to talk to more people in different states if we can figure out how to do that. That makes it so interesting.

Wende:

Yeah, we'll figure it out for sure, and we'll market our podcast more that way.

John:

Yeah, and I'm writing on my books.

Wende:

I want to hear about that. So we're gonna talk about today is January 15th. 15th, 16th? 16th, um, so mid-January. And I want to ask you, Dad, about what are your goals for the resolutions, goals, projects, whatever you want to call it for 2026.

John:

You know, I was real big on resolutions and goals for many, many years. And I think we've talked about this before. But when Wende and Brad, our kids, were small, we did goals every New Year's Eve. We wrote our goals down, we put it in an envelope, we opened it up the next year. So I've always been big on goals, but the last few years I've gotten away from goals because I'm lazy.

Wende:

No, because I don't I wouldn't call you lazy.

John:

I wouldn't uh I don't know why I've gotten away from that, but I I would say I'm just as productive without the goals as I was.

Wende:

That's great.

John:

Now the way to be to do well is write your goals down, then make an activity list from your goals, and do the number one activity first. Yes. I was honored with this patient. I can talk about the patient because she lives way away from here in a different state, way, way, way, nobody will know her. Okay. And uh she is a perfectionist, one of those perfectionists that won't, I mean, that just paralyzes her. Yeah. And she's got all this stuff to do, and she can't get going because she's paralyzed by it. And then she builds up, builds up, builds up, and to get her to do those activities, it's impossible. So if you're a perfectionist, you gotta stay on top of it and make a list and do your activity, the most important thing first, and get it done. Yes.

Wende:

But and chip away small, like and just take it not.

John:

I took what I told her today, take a Swiss cheese approach. And she said, I think I'm gonna organize this and organize that and organize. I said, no, do not do that. Because that's gonna ruin you, because you're gonna see all these things and you're gonna get discouraged. Just the first thing on your desk, do it, throw that away. Then do the next thing, throw it away. Well, I got this thing, it's really important. I said, Don't, I don't care.

Wende:

You work on something achievable.

John:

Yeah, do it something achievable. And I think that's what it for our people here. Do something that's achievable. And then the number one thing, and I think it's helped me, is find something you are passionate about. That's one of the things I told you and Brad when you're growing up. I said, find something that you're passionate about. And if you're passionate about something, you will be successful. And the way I define success is if you have love, joy, and peace in your life, you're successful.

Wende:

Yeah.

John:

Now, if you're a passionate about something, passionate, if you have passion, you'll have love, joy, and peace. You'll have that guaranteed. Now, will you make a lot of money? Maybe not. Maybe but the point is you'll have love, joy, and peace. And if you have that, if you have a goal, one of your goals is to be prosperous, to make a lot of money, then with love, joy, and peace, you probably will. But it doesn't make any difference. And I'll tell you this also: I have a lot of patients who are multimillionaires, but money does not make them happy.

Wende:

That's so good to remind people of, yeah.

John:

And uh the more money they have, the more money they want to make.

Wende:

Yep.

John:

The old thing about Rockefeller says, how much money do you want to make? Just a little more.

Wende:

Yeah.

John:

And so, you know, so that's not gonna make you happy. You got to find something that you're passionate about. You're you're passionate about what you're doing.

Wende:

I am, and so are you. Yeah.

John:

I want to hear what you're doing. Well, why are you passionate about what you do?

Wende:

Uh well, I'm passionate about two things, as most of you know if you've been listening to the podcast. The first is I absolutely love my job. Yeah. Which is location scouting for film, TV, commercials, photography. Every time I mention that somebody is somebody new, they're like, that's a job? That sounds so cool. And I'm like, it is.

John:

I'd love to do that.

Wende:

They'll say that. How'd you get into that? That sounds really cool.

John:

You know what's funny though, Windy? Because it's Vic and I drive around and say, that would be right.

Wende:

Yeah, I know. And you see these places. You showed me something today on your phone. You're like, look at this, remember this town. Look at that. That would be a good place. So, yeah, so I get to uh explore new places all the time, meet new people all the time. So that's that makes me happy, full of joy. Um, you know, I I get to love the thing that I do. So yeah, that checks all those boxes. Does it get frustrating at times? Sure.

John:

Everything gets frustrated.

Wende:

Does it get cold very cold and very hot when I'm on site? Yes, long hours, yes, but all of the the benefits outweigh all of those. And every job has its downside. So you can't.

John:

Oh, and nothing, you are independent. You don't have to answer to a boss. Absolutely.

Wende:

And that means the world to me.

John:

Yeah.

Wende:

So that I can take the jobs as a freelancer, the ones I want and the ones I don't want. So, in between that passion of mine and the next one, tell me about your book, about your work fighting. You know, I've been right.

John:

Yeah, I've started this book a long time ago, probably five years ago. And things got in the way, things got on the way, and like we were saying about this perfectionist, getting started is so difficult. And you think about all sorts of things and you can't get started. Once you start, if you like what you're doing, it's hard to stop.

Wende:

Yeah.

John:

And so I've started on my book again, and man, I'm having the most fun. Now, one of the things that hurt me is I went to this darn writer's group, you know, and the writers group was terrible because of why. These are nice, nice, nice people, but the problem is they spent a lot of time on picky things, and it hurt my creativity. Yeah, you know, because then you're thinking, what will these people say about this? And I got my comma in the right place and all that stuff. And you're writing to please God. And so I'm writing to please them instead of writing to please myself. Yeah. And so I'm trying to get rid of that critical monkey that says, Is this right or this right? And just write what is fun to write and makes me laugh and you know, think about adventures. So I got murder, I got rape, I got betrayal, I got sex, I got romance, I got all of it in there, and it is really, really good. It's very well written. People are gonna like this book because I'll enjoy it.

Wende:

Yes, that's great.

John:

Yeah, and you'll like the sexy part.

Wende:

Oh no.

John:

I told that to Laura, I told that to our granddaughter, and oh man, she was so embarrassed. She said, my grandfather writing about sex is terrible. But but it's a funny, it's it's funny. The sexual part is funny.

Wende:

At least there's some humor in an old boy. Oh my gosh. Anyway, all right. We're fast-forwarding past this part. Um yeah, so that's great. So even though you said earlier you don't like goals per se, or you're not making as many goals per se anymore, what I've I've kind of done something similar. I've gotten off of resolutions, off of specific goals like the SMART goals that they used to say. And I'm I'm doing more projects. Right. So that gives me a room to explore an idea or a project without having a hard and fast deadline to say or something measurable. Um, it just makes the whole process more enjoyable. And yeah, I think if we're you and I are both pretty self-motivated, right? We don't lack motivation. Um so I think smart goals are really helpful for people that need more structure around it. But for you and I, it's more like you and I, you and me, you and me. For me, yeah. It's more about like, hey, let's let's take this quarter to explore this idea. For example, TED Talks. There's a TEDx conference coming up in Charlotte that I'm exploring, possibly applying to that for the fall. And so I'm going to take this time to like watch the old videos and go to the spring TEDx conference and watch the speakers and really explore what the application process looks like.

John:

And do your Toastmasters. So you have to do it.

Wende:

So all of these ways of um defining whatever, you know, as long as you've got something in front of you that's you're reaching for joy or something to reach for.

John:

Now, I'm I want to say this that Wende and I don't need goals, but for some of you, goals are very important if you can't get started or if your dream is hazy or whatever, it's very important to make those goals. And everybody's different though. Projects are fine, uh, finding your passion, whatever gets you going is what's important. Yes. And uh so I want to say something about Toastmasters. I've noticed on your podcast when you first started out, you were talking more uh more monotone.

Wende:

Yes.

John:

More of a monotone. I know now you're you have m so much more energy, your phrasing is so much better, you have such more pip in your thank you. That's something we work on.

Wende:

Toastmasters.

John:

But yeah. So Toastmasters has really helped you. So it's a plug for Toastmasters.

Wende:

And we're having, I mean, this will drop on Sunday. So we are having an open house at our Toastmasters in Davidson, North Carolina, on Wednesday, the 21st.

John:

And I'm going to come and I'm going to join up. Nice. Because I've been at the Toastmaster before. And man am I a good speaker. And so it will be a great, great, great example when I start giving my speeches for everybody.

Wende:

You're going to learn so much from you.

John:

And you know, I'm so humble too. So, you know, I'll teach humility also.

Wende:

I think that's why you should do your speech on. Yeah. Your icebreaker. Yeah. Humility and all of my other wonderful characteristics.

John:

Yes. Humility in ten ways I got there.

Wende:

Yeah.

John:

But uh yeah. Humor is so important. And that was nothing I was telling my perfectionistic person today. I said, look, there are going to be people that are better than you. You're not going to be better than everybody. And there are going to be people that aren't quite as good as you are. But stop comparing yourself to other people and learn to laugh at yourself.

Wende:

Yes.

John:

And I she didn't have a sense of humor because I told her this story. And you've probably heard this story. Um I was telling our daughter, our granddaughter, Annie, who's about five years old at the time. We were driving down the road. And I said, Annie, you're so lucky to have me. I'm the smartest man in the world. I know geography. I know philosophy. I know physics. I'm the smartest man in the world, and you're right here with me. And she did air quotes and said, the smartest man in the world just missed the turn.

Wende:

Ah. Hey, Annie, took him down the nuts.

John:

And she knew air quotes. I didn't know air quotes until I was about 45. Oh. And she's a she's a sharp cookie. But anyway, so I told this to my my patient about, you know, stop trying to be perfect and told that little story, and she didn't laugh. Oh.

Wende:

That's funny. Oh. So being able to laugh at yourself as you are. I mean, that's just that's just priceless. That is such a good, that is such a good way to disarm people from you know feeling like you're trying to be better than them, or that you're, you know, to break the ice in a relationship is if you can laugh at yourself in a way and not beat yourself up, but that what is that called self-deprecating human humor?

John:

That's yeah, I'm real good at self-deprecating humor. That's so good. And um, and you know, when I say I'm the smartest man in the world, everybody knows that I'm not. Of course. And when I say I'm a great speaker, everybody knows I'm not that great. Oh, you are though. But anyway, so, and uh, you know, we all have problems. Every one of us have some anxiety, depression, some worry. And we look at other people and then we think, man, that person's got it all made. That's not true. Everybody has problems. And we've got to be able to laugh at ourselves, not take ourselves so seriously. Do the best we can and accept good enough. Now, one of the problems with my writing is I don't accept good enough. One of the problems with my writing, it's fun writing it, then I go back and edit it because I enjoy turning the phrases around. So I'm not in any hurry. So why be like Stephen King? You know, you write 2,000 words a day. Yeah. I tried to do that and I can't do it. I just liked you, I can kind of make it everything right.

Wende:

Yeah, well, I think do whatever method works for you. And if you like to edit as you go, that's great. Or go come back to a section later. Maybe you don't have the inspiration to write something new, but you're like, hey, I want to keep up with my habit of writing, so let's go back and and read and tweak this one section, and that kind of gets your juices flowing to write something new as well. So yep, good techniques. So we I gosh, we caught we've covered so many great introductory topics in just this one episode. We're so brilliant. You know, we're so brilliant. And we we hope that you know our listeners just recognize our brilliance and appreciate our wisdom. And you know, you can say that you heard it here on the Leverage Your Time Balance Your Life podcast.

John:

And you know, tell people about it. We're getting more and more listeners. Yes. So the more listeners we have, the more you can tell people about it. And uh, we're getting better and better guests, aren't we, Wende? We are so thankful for our guests. Yep. And we'll have Mimi back because I think if we have Mimi back three or four times, we'll get her to stop being a perfectionist.

Wende:

I don't know if we'll be able to get her to stop doing all the sticky notes that she did in your book. She read your book more thoroughly than I did.

John:

Well, it's our book. It's our book. I know. That's what I mean. You know, I think what she did, she just put stickers in there, uh, you know, to impress as random stickers.

Wende:

Not at all. She's she's a sharp cookie. All right. Well, everybody, we're gonna sign off here, and we just invite you to keep following us, keep sharing the podcast, and look forward to a great season six with new guests, new books, and new conversations.

John:

Yep. All right, see you next week.