"Vision + Action = Success" - Michael Dillard on Becoming the CEO of Your Life

In this 5-minute clip, former U.S. diplomat and leadership coach Michael Dillard shares a simple but powerful mindset shift: Success isn’t just about the hustle - it’s about clarity, direction, and the courage to pivot.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in your path or unsure how to move forward, this one's for you.

How do you move from stuck… to strategic?

Here Michael Dillard shares part of his personal story - from high school struggles to joining the military, to eventually leading multicultural teams around the world as a U.S. diplomat.

You’ll hear:

• Why your journey may require a “temporary left turn”
• What it really means to be the CEO of your life
• How to build discipline your way, even when it’s hard
• Why success is about vision + action, not just grit

This is your invitation to reflect, realign, and take one step forward - today.

Want more? The full episode drops in three days on Life & Leadership Connected with David Dahlén D’Cruz.

P.S. P.S. Here is a special gift to all viewers and listeners of this episode:
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Transcript

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I noticed something that in order to succeed you have to put in work. I realized that in life you have to have a vision. When you have a vision, you have to take action. And when you take action, success comes. I started noticing a pattern in my life When I was in high school. I studied, I got my diploma. After high school, I was working and I realized that I can't work full time and also go to college. So I took a step back once again, I joined the military, got money to help pay for my college education. What I realized David and to the listeners is that you have to pivot when it's time to make a change. You have to make sure you have all the tools and resources that you need to achieve your goal. Sometimes in life, the way forward might be for you to take a temporary left. Then you get back on the highway. And that's what I did. I realized that you have goals. You have timelines, but sometimes it might take you little longer than you envisioned to get there. But the most important thing is when you get in your car and you're driving down the highway, going on that five hour trip, you have to take a couple rest stops. But when you get there, it was all worth it. Leaders need system and programs to lead with impact. And that's what I've been doing. I've been going around the world teaching other leaders and organizations how to lead with impact and which I'll break it down throughout this conversation today. Leaders need tools and resources. So I joined a coaching program and that coaching program changed the way I lead today. And it helped me to develop the "L.E.A.D. with Impact" framework that I teach, which is to help leaders listen with empathy, to help leaders empower others, to help leaders adapt to change, and most importantly, to help leaders develop other leaders. Everybody wants to be the CEO of their life. What does that mean? That means they are the chief executive officer over everything that happens for them every single day. When you wake up, what's your goal? Is your goal solely to go to work to make money for other people? Or is your goal to wake up and to become the best person that you can become? And that's what it means to be the CEO of your life, is to become the best person that you can become today with the tools and resources that you have. That's what it means to be the CEO of your life. It means that when you wake up, you have a goal to pass that exam. You have a goal to get a new certification. And today, you know, it's going to take you 100 hours of studying time before you're ready to take that exam. One bite at a time. Carve out two hours, study. Next day, carve out another two hours, study. The weekend, do triples, two early in the morning, two during lunchtime, two at night. But you're taking one step forward toward your goals that you set for you. And that's what it means to be the CEO of your life. It means have a plan that includes your mindset, your career goals, your financial goals, and your time with your family. You have to set goals. When you reach one goal, set another goal. You have to have the discipline to keep going when it gets tough. Keep going when people are doing other things. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Worry about what's on your plate. Worry about what's in front of you right now because I've lived it and I've seen others."Vision plus action equals success"."Vision plus action equals success". And I want to break it down because we're, let's focus on discipline. People want to lose weight every single day. People want to save money every single day. Here's what I tell people to do. Choose a goal or something that you want to accomplish. Now, research three other people who have achieved that same goal. For me, I want to run longer. I want to go from running 30 minutes to running an hour and a half. So I did a Google research. I searched how to increase my running time and distance. I watched YouTube videos from three different people. Then I settled on one program that I felt like that I can actually do for myself. And this is how discipline is created. You don't have to do what somebody else did. Do the one thing that you can do, the thing that you believe in. For some, if they're trying to lose weight, it might just eat 10 % less every single day, because you don't want to exercise. Bam. That is what's going to work for you. For others, it might be to walk an extra 30 minutes every single day, no matter what. But the point is choose something that you believe in that will allow you to commit to it, to have the discipline to do it when it's raining, to have the discipline to do it when you're tired, to have the discipline when your family's telling you, no, no, no, you can do it another time. Because vision plus Action equals Success."