Square Peg

In this episode of the Reach Your Peak Podcast, I, Jeff Miller, share my personal journey of feeling like a "round peg in a square hole." Throughout my life, I've often felt out of place, with my ideas and approaches differing from those around me. I emphasize the importance of recognizing and respecting our differences, drawing inspiration from my mentor, John Maxwell.

I discuss the metaphor of fitting a square peg into a round hole, explaining that while it is possible, it often requires changing either the peg or the hole. I believe that each of us is uniquely created, and it's essential to embrace our true selves rather than conforming to fit into spaces that don't align with who we are.

My passion lies in helping others transition from where they are to where they want to be. I reflect on my experiences in retail management, where I aimed to inspire young employees to discover their potential. I also share two significant moments in my life where I felt I truly belonged: at C3 Church in Clayton, North Carolina, and during the International Maxwell Conference.

I encourage listeners who feel out of place to seek their tribe and embrace their uniqueness. If you're feeling stuck and want to move forward, I'm here to help you navigate that journey. Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to connecting with you!

Transcript

Okay, hey everybody. Just wanted to say hey. I was driving down the road, had a couple minutes until going to a pickup. I should probably change this to Jeff the Uber, right? Because when you're in transition, sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But anyway, Jeff Miller here, Apex Leadership Development, Reach Your Peak Podcast. One of the things that I just want everybody to know, who I am, what I'm about. One of my little speeches, just a three minute speech that I gave, was talking about being a round peg in a square hole. So, all of my life I just felt like I didn't fit in spaces. My ideas of the way to do things and everybody else's ideas of the way to do them, they were always completely and totally different. My mom will love this because I said different, I didn't say right, I didn't say wrong. I wasn't wrong. The people that I worked with, they weren't wrong. It's just that we had differences of opinions on how we would do certain things and the one thing that I've learned about that is that that's okay. One of my mentors, John Maxwell, talks about that in his book, High Road Leadership, that we have different beliefs and different thoughts and different processes, but at the end of the day, it's okay to have those differences, and we need to respect each other's differences. So anyway, I just never felt like I fit in, and what I learned is that contrary to popular belief, you actually can put a square peg into a round hole. Okay? Here's what has to happen for that to happen though, okay? You either have to change the shape of that square peg, so you knock the edges off of it, right? Knock the corners off, now it's round. But, you've changed the peg. You've changed who you are. Or, you make the hole bigger so that those corners fit in there. And then next thing you know, the hole feels like, well, what's up with all this empty space? And then you feel like the peg is like, hey, wait a minute. I don't feel like this fits here, like there's so much room around me, so much places to grow, that this doesn't feel like the right space. So I spent a lot of my life either feeling like I was trying to be pushed into somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be pushed into, or that everything around me was bigger and that there was just all of this space that needed to be filled. Yes, you can put a square peg into a round hole, but that's not the way that it was designed. And so I've talked about this. You know that I'm a person of faith. I have a strong Christian faith. respect those of you that don't, but part of my values that I believe was that I'm uniquely created to be me. And whether you're a person of faith or not, I believe that you are uniquely created to be you. You're designed to be who you're designed to be. The way that you're wired on the inside intrinsically, the way that your mind thoughts, some of that is nurture, some of it's nature, some of it's just Some of it's just who we are. And if you're different, look I'm not talking about like if you're a psycho killer, okay? That's something that you probably need therapy about and don't be yourself. If you're a total jerk, if you're a beep, then maybe you should get therapy or maybe you should work at being a nice person. But I'm talking intrinsically who we are, what we're desired to do, what we're desired to be. And what I discovered through a lot of life change, through a lot of changing careers is that one of the things that really makes me tick is helping people move from where they're at to where they want to be. Going from place A to place B. I used to work in retail management. In retail management, I'm hiring a lot of people that it's closer to their first job than their last job. What I always wanted to be for them was one of those cogs where they just started to see the business world a little bit different, where they just started to see some of their potential a little different, where maybe they were discovering some of their gifts, some of the things that were inside of them and part of who they were. And that was always my goal. And so I knew that I wasn't going to be the last piece in their puzzle, that I was closer to the first piece. But hey, if you make the corners fit, right? And so I wanted to be one of those corner fits. I wanted to help them find their place as they started their journey. And so that led me to, there's two times that I felt like I fit. One of them was walking into then C3 church, in Clayton, North Carolina. They have a different name now, Hopefront, I think. Sorry, Pastor Matt, if I got that wrong. And I walked in there, and there was about 1,500 people there that thought and believed, just like I did. And I joined that organization. We actually planted a church through that organization. And the second time was when I joined the Maxwell Leadership Team, and I walked into the IMC in Orlando the International Maxwell Conference where we get certified and I walked in and I just found all of these other people and the mission of the Maxwell organization if you don't know is to add value to people who multiply value in others and so I'm here to multiply value. If you're a person that you have spent A lot of your life not feeling like you fit. I want to tell you that your tribe is out there. Your people are out there. Be who you are supposed to be. Be where you're supposed to be. It's going to work out for you. It's working out for me. It has worked out for me in other areas. And so I just want to see that work out for you. I just want to kind of give you that overview. Who is this guy, Jeff? What's he about? I'm here for you. I am about seeing you become the person that you want to be. So if you're stuck in place A and you want to figure out how to be in place B, Just give me a call. Send me a direct message. My contact information is all around. You can get me. It's Jeff Apex, Leadership Development and Reach the Peak Podcast. Thanks. Have a great day.