Alignment: Find the Wedge That's Keeping You Grounded

A plane built to fly 600 miles an hour gets stopped cold by one small chock behind the tire. Chris Hart watched it happen on a runway and couldn't shake the question: what's the wedge in my own life? Joey Odom and Chris spend this episode on alignment, and why it's almost always the thing already inside us, not the circumstance around us, that keeps us grounded.

They walk through a simple chain: thoughts lead to words, words to actions, actions to habits, and habits to results. So if you don't like the result you're getting, you don't start with the result. You go back and check the alignment of your thoughts. Joey talks about treating your mind like an algorithm that feeds you more of whatever you pause on, and how choosing gratitude actually retrains it.

From there they get practical about the teams in your life: friends, family, and work. Are you operating in your strength? Are you clear on your lane? Are you taking ownership of what you've been handed? They close on aligning your faith, naming the one thing that pulls you out of it (fear), and the quiet enemy that takes down teams, marriages, and companies (pride).

In this episode:

— The wedge: how one small thing grounds a life built to take off
 — Why the obstacle is rarely the circumstance and usually yourself
 — The chain that runs your life: thoughts, words, actions, habits, results
 — Your mind as an algorithm, and how to retrain what it feeds you
 — Why alignment makes the assignment possible (1 percent vision, 99 percent alignment)
 — Three questions for your work: your strength, your lane, your ownership
 — How taking ownership of the small things funnels you into your strengths
 — Two questions to align your faith, plus the fear and pride that break alignment

This week's small step: Name your wedge, or a result you're getting that you wish were different. They're usually the same thing. Then take it to one person, say it out loud, and decide together how you'll fight to remove it. Sit with it this week before you act.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

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FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Jim Collins on vision and alignment in visionary companies. James Clear on identity-based habits. Craig Groeschel on going the direction of your most powerful thoughts. The accounts of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and Gideon (Judges 6-7).

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to Brave and Big, where we talk about living a Brave and Big Life. I'm Joey Odom, husband to Kristen, dad to Harrison and Diana, speaker, former tech co-founder and author.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

I'm Chris Hart, husband to Molly, dad to Blakely, Cooper, Landry, and my son Brave. I'm the CEO and founder of the Brave Group and Brave Performance Agency. Joey and I have been having these talks for 25 years, and we're better for it. We believe the same will be true for you. Enjoy this episode. Be brave and live big. Brave and big coming at you. Hey, it's podcast time. Hopefully you just flipped us on and you're like cruising down the road or I don't know, doing doing something great like in the garden.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

You know, I don't know what you might be doing right now, but we got a very big gardening contingent. Oh, they love us. It's great. They love us. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

They they're because they could all tell us how to do better. That's why they love us. You know, so like that. Yes. You like that? I do. Uh, just for fun, everybody listening, we've got a pretty salty topic today that we're excited about. I ask this question every time I'm with a group of people, so I'm gonna make Joey answer it live. Okay, Joey loves it when I put him on the spot. I got them real good a couple episodes ago. Joey, oh, also I get critiqued because we're so positive. Somebody said that. They're like, Man, you guys are just so positive. I'm like, man, if you want super negative pods, click on somebody else because these are people happy.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

We could be brave, big, and positive. Okay. But to double down on that, this is the question I always ask, Joey, what's your favorite thing about yourself? Uh you do ask that question a lot. Okay, as you think about the answer, if you're if you're listening to this, throw this out to people. Okay, it puts them on the spot, they don't know how to respond, they don't want to be prideful, and then if they'll actually just let it rip, it's the best question ever. Uh, and then you have to answer it for yourself, typically, that kind of thing. But but Joey PO'd him, what's the best thing about you?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

But quick quick side note. Our you asked this question of our producer Miles, and I think he gave the best answer I think I've ever heard. And it was it was pretty quick. He said, I'm a great friend.

unknown 2:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

God, what a great just to know yourself like that. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

But then it led to this awesome backstory on why that's important to us. That's right. Yes. That's why I like the question.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

It's a great uh my listen, my favorite thing about myself is how deeply I feel. I I'm a I'm a deep feeler, I get moved to things. This is why when I walk into a room, you talk about how I'm a good first impression. One of those big reasons is I recognize that most people in social situations feel insecure. And I have the ability to what when I walk into a room to make them feel so confident in who they are, and then they can go walk out who God's made them to be. So that it's so I I love how I feel. I get moved to tears, I um, you know, fairly easily. Um, but but it's when I feel moving things, a moving song, a moving instrumental song will move me to tears sometimes. And um, and I love that about myself. I love, I love how deeply I feel. One other thing that I'll say about this, just for the parents, as a little bonus to this, I just how meaningful it was. I remember my mom saying to me, she goes, Joey, you feel things so deeply. And I I just I just remember how that that was something that she probably said, I don't know, a thousand times or ten times. I have no idea, but every time you're crying, I felt celebrated in something that came naturally to me. Feeling came naturally to me. And when I felt it celebrated, it made me feel very good about accepting that, embracing it. And here I am now saying it's actually my favorite thing about me.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Wow. Man, how about that? Let's it's it's cool for somebody out to have to like say it about themselves. And if if we can recognize that in somebody else, let's be the people that celebrate it with them. You know what I mean? Like let's let's build, let's, let's, let's water the ground with some champagne, like let's celebrate people, let's help them see what they're great at, feel it, and then double down and help them see it and walk it out.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

All right. Now we can't just make that one-sided though, big guy. Well, what is I've heard you I've never asked this question of you as many times as I've heard you ask it of others. What's your favorite thing about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Oh, probably something along the lines of confidence, and which is great personally, but I my favorite thing is to instill confidence into other people.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So I like to, you know, walk around with it, that's great. But man, to to see somebody else light up and and think, man, maybe I should go do that. I think I could give that a try. Maybe I will jump off of that cliff. You know what I mean? Like I think that's the that's the fun stuff. So it's fun being able to impart that into other people consistently.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

You do make people feel big. I like that. You make them feel brave and big. You should start a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Let's do it. So here's where we're gonna go today. And this this kind of ties in. That was just more fun. I would encourage you to ask that question to people that you care about, people that you're with, and to perfect strangers. It's it's fun to get all of those responses. We're talking about a big word and it's alignment. The alignment of your life. And we're gonna dive into a few different categories where this really applies. I think there's gonna be some inspection that comes with this. I think there's gonna be uh hopefully some revelation. We're gonna give you some like homework to take home and really process when it comes to aligning your life. So, so get ready for it. Um, and Joey, I'll I'll tell you what. I'm just gonna let you kind of say your opening statement about the concept of alignment, and then I'll tell a story here real quick. What what are you we talk about talking about alignment? What's the first thing that comes to mind?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

The very, the very first thing that comes to mind is such an odd thing that will come to mind. But I remember Chris and I were early in in our marriage. It was we're probably two years in and we were cleaning the house together. And I just remember, I remember exactly where I was in the kitchen. And I was thinking, I'm in such a great mood right now. Man, this I'm I'm in such a I'm I'm in such a great mood cleaning the house, something I used to hate when I was growing up is chore day. And I thought about it, and then I realized at that moment, it's because I'm working towards something. I'm one goal with somebody that I love. Like she and I were perfectly on the same page. And I thought about that, I've thought about that sense of just the power of and doing something that I might otherwise hate, but being fully aligned with the person that was with me and how that will change my perspective on anything. So that's so that's in marriage, that's a small little thing. And again, you I hadn't prepared that was just off the cuff of me thinking about that. It was a moment where I felt fully, fully aligned, even in something that I didn't like doing. And you know, this of course we can think about talk about, and we will we'll talk about aligning thoughts, we'll talk about aligning relationships, words, all that kind of stuff. But to me, an aligned person is absolutely unstoppable, aligned team is absolutely unstoppable. So for me, that's where I start. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

There's some power in what you just said, just this simple idea. Uh, if we're aligned, then we can kind of accomplish anything.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Right? Like you you think about the teams that have won a Super Bowl, you talk, then they're gonna talk about the locker room. Yes, it was so clear we had one mission. You know what I mean? Like, so I think that kind of creates this idea that alignment facilitates your assignment or it makes the assignment possible. Without alignment, we cannot fulfill the assignments on our lives. And those assignments present themselves in a variety of different, you know, situations and expressions. Uh, but I I remember this, uh, we had just flown back from China and we're on the airplane, and I'm fascinated by airplanes because they don't make sense to me, right? Like it's just wild that you can fly in the air. You know what I'm saying? Ships, also weird. It's weird for floating. Yeah, it's doesn't make any sense. Photography doesn't make sense. It's crazy that it works, right? So I'm having one of those kind of moments on the plane, and I'm thinking, man, we just flew like 14 hours in the air at 600 miles an hour. And I'm thinking about just this plane and the creation of this plane and what it's capable of doing. And right then another plane pulls up and they're doing the wanding thing, which would be a cool job for a day, right? They're wanding the plane in. And as the plane is coming, it comes to a stop, and they put the chalk or a what you know, a chalk is like what goes behind the little tire. It's like a little wedge that goes behind the tires. And it this just hit me though. I was like, that's crazy that that machine that was born to fly and take people around the world now cannot move because of the small wedge behind the tire. Dang. And I I guess it was God. I just thought I had just had this revelation of like, man, what could the wedge be in my life? Like, what could that it's behind the tire right now and it can't go anywhere. And so I I want to bring that into this context of alignment because I think maybe as a starting point, what I would propose is let's kind of take a look, let's be self-aware so that we're not self-deceived. And let's kind of start recognizing, man, what might be a wedge in our lives that would actually keep us from doing what we're created to do? And if we'll go there a little bit, it's like, okay, and if I could remove that, and and I'm I'm saying this probably personally and professionally, just kind of along those lines, let's think about it. But is it a bad habit? Is it a poor routine? Is it a misplaced relationship? Um, is it an addiction? You know, I'm saying that it might be that one thing that's keeping us out of alignment and honestly keeping us from taking off and filling the different assignments we have. Yeah, how's that? How's that story hit you, Joey?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

You know, it does make me think. I think about the wedges, and it is a crazy thing to think about how it could be that small little thing. And I don't know how many times you we've all heard this statement about somebody or we've said it about somebody's like, ah, if they could just get out of their own way. Yeah. They could just get out of their own way. It's it's rarely, it's rarely that external circumstance that really limits somebody. It's it's usually it's usually ourselves. We can become, and we hear it's you know, we say we can be our own worst enemy, and that could be a prideful situation. I think about, I think about in my marriage, I think about moments where we could really explode, we could have an explosive argument. We had this one Sunday, we were, you know, we're we're getting ready for church, we listen to worship music, and then I just pop off or something like that. Like I just get really impatient with everybody, and or maybe they meet, you know, maybe I felt like they they had, I don't really remember the full sit the circumstances around it. But I remember walking to the garage, the three, you know, Kristen, Harris, and Gianna are in the car, and remember thinking I have a choice right now. And my choice is I can either escalate this, I can sit and pout, or, and luckily, I just went to each one of the doors, I opened it, I gave each one of them a kiss on the forehead, and moment's over. Everything's fine. And here's what I don't here's what I do remember. I remember that I remember the pride that it took that I had to swallow. I remembered the repair that with each one of them, a simple kiss on the head, but I don't remember the cause of the issue. And that should tell us something. Yeah, is that the more important thing is what we how we react to it, but I had a chance right there, like I've done a thousand times before and I've done a thousand times since to be in my own way, to get in my own way. So it is an interesting thing. The things that jumps out to me there is the thing that really has the potential is really within ourselves. It's rarely that external circumstance, it's very often it's that internal thing for us. What about for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Oh man, I'm with you 100%. I I just I think about this lens of alignment, and and it really makes a lot of sense, like in everything that we do. Like I'm a very average golfer, but if I if I even if I hit the ball flush, but I lined up wrong, it's still wrong.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

You know what I'm saying? Well, you crushed it, yeah, but I was lined up left, so that's where it went. Right? Like sports make a lot of easy examples, but like that that left tackle that's this freak athlete first round draft pick, if he lines up on the right side of the ball, he can't fulfill his assignment. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I I kind of go there a little bit when we're thinking about this. Like sometimes the wedge is simply being misplaced or focusing on the wrong thing. You know, that creates a misalignment. And now, no matter what, even if you're even if you feel like you're doing great, if you're lined up raw, it's kind of like, man, you climbed the ladder, but it was the wrong ladder.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Right. And so what I maybe the initial challenge as we kind of get into this is what I hope starts stirring in people is that idea of like, man, what could the wedge be? Where might you just be out of alignment in a relationship? It might be in the position you're in at your job, it might be a misalignment with how you're communicating discipline to kids. You know what I mean? There's a lot of different ways this could present itself. But man, if we could go here a little bit, Joey, and kind of unpack this today, and that's what we're gonna do is is propose some questions to ask and really, I think, start identifying some of these uh categories and layers of alignment. Yes. First one, let's kind of dive into our thoughts a little bit. Don't you think this is maybe where it starts, Joey? Like if we're if we're if we're not thinking right, it is shocking how quickly we can get out of alignment. Yes, you know what I mean? And and I don't mean like I didn't think right this month. I mean, I can get really off in like an hour. You know what I'm saying? Like, and you got I'll come off a bad call or something, or you know, a kid'll say something that just frustrates the heck out of you, and then it's like, oh, that and then you know, so it's interesting too how quickly things can compound and especially get your thinking off, and now it taints everywhere you're trying to go from that point forward. That's right. So it you go there on thoughts a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Well, I mean, I this is again so much of this is so much of this, our thoughts are just an outflow of our identity, and we've talked about this some on on past episodes of just who do you who do you believe yourself to be? James Clear talks about identity-based habits, and so our thoughts stemming from stemming from our minds, which again stems from what we consume. And then if you think about this, I saw this recently, which I love this idea. I love this idea of thinking of our minds as an as an algorithm, as a social media algorithm, where you we all know this. When you when I start searching the Oklahoma City Thunder on Twitter, I'm gonna get a bunch of Oklahoma City Thunder stuff. And you're gonna keep you're gonna be because in the what they're gonna see, and they can even tell, obviously, in social media, they can tell what you pause on on your feeds. So they know, they know kind of where you're you know, they call it a heat map in that world where you can see, like, oh, the heat map is right here. Like, oh, they're really they're pausing on this free-fly advertisement on Instagram, and so they know I'm gonna feed you more of that. And so our brains are doing the constant thing, and it says, I know you like that, so I'm gonna give you more of that. And so our brains start doing the same thing. If we start feeding ourselves negativity, if we start feeding ourselves impatience, if we start feeding ourselves from our identity, if we start feeding ourselves, you know, I'm the victim, my wife's always my wife is always wronging me, or gosh, my kids are so entitled. Our brains are just gonna continue to feed us that. So it's gonna be a reinforcing loop that's sticking in our heads. And this was such a breakthrough for me when I realized, what am I feeding my brain? What am I feeding my thoughts? Because, and you can even, I believe you can even trick your brain in this that we have an opportunity to choose gratitude in moments we're in. Yes, things suck sometimes. Yes, it can be hard. Yes, things can be challenging, but I also believe, and I'm not talking about toxic positivity, I'm really not in any way. I'm saying you choosing to look at a situation differently, which will get begin to retrain the algorithm of your brain, which will begin to get you thinking in better alignment with the person that you'd like to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Man, that's good. This is interesting. Jim Collins said, building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. Right. Like to your point. Uh hey, we're not there yet. This the company isn't proof of all the greatness that we think it could potentially be, but we are gonna focus on okay, we're heading this direction, and if we're all aligned, we can get there. If I get my mind and brain thinking correctly, we can get where we're trying to go.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Did you did that quote? Did you say uh building a visionary company? 1% is vision.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

I love that. How neat is that?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Well, because it's like, hey, listen, this is this is the 1%. That's where we're headed. That's all we needed. Now 99% of our effort needs to be about aligning so we can actually go get there. Wow. And I thought of that based on on we can almost trick ourselves. It's like, is this a visionary company? Yeah, because we're aligned. Am I heading towards greatness? Yes, because we're aligned for greatness. Do I have good kids? Man, the last 30 minutes, I don't know that that's a great you know, sample, but it's like, are they great? Yes, we are heading that direction, and there's so much power in that. So think about this, because it's interesting. Craig Rochelle says, you will go the direction of your most powerful thoughts. That's true. Which makes sense. Like, man, I'm I'm staring at that. This is where I want to go. This is why I'm bent on doing it. That's what I'm thinking about. That's where you're gonna head. We took a group of kids on a ski trip years ago, and it's funny because they'll say, like in skiing, it's like wherever you look is where you're gonna go. Okay. And so it's fascinating. We're we're doing kind of these little routes, and I've got, I don't know, six or seven kids kind of following me, and I'm like, oh, I should take them through the trees, not factoring in skill levels or anything. And I go in the tree, I come out of the tree, we go in the trees, and man, it was amazing. I turn around, I'm watching, and all these kids are just in and out, in and out, and out. Man, the last one I see it coming, he gets a little nervous, he is staring right at the tree, hits a little bump, and it was like a cartoon, like arms are straight out, legs are straight out, and I mean, just ate it. And I I, you know, take my skis off, jog back up there. I'm like, buddy, are you okay? He goes, it's just like you said, I was staring right at the tree, and that's where I ended up. Wow. But I think those are our thoughts. What are you thinking about? It's creating the alignment which is gonna take you that direction.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

So good.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So there's a there's a pattern to this. And so uh if you're if you're listening, think about this. Thoughts lead to words, words lead to actions, actions lead to habits, and habits give us results, good or bad. So the great thing here is if we don't love our results, we need to go back up and check the alignment of our thoughts. Thoughts to words, words to actions, actions to habits, habits give us results, right? So I love the process here, but but Joey, maybe talk about how we start with thoughts to get to those results.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So, and to clarify for for the discussion here, when we when you say align your thoughts, what what I hear you saying is what you just said, you said thoughts, words, actions, habits, results. When you're saying align your thoughts, you're saying are your results, are the results you want, are the thoughts you thoughts you have in alignment with the results you want.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

That's it. I uh Tara Lowens said once, he said, if you want a positive result, you can't think negative thoughts. And and again, so this is again for people, uh this whole idea of whether it's toxic positivity or brain hacking or whatever it is, this is just how it works. So if you feel disingenuous that you uh about any of this and trying to trick your brain or change your algorithm or think positive thoughts, no, it actually works. This this is the kind this actually does happen. And so I think I do think for that clarification, I like thinking the end result in mine is here's the life that I want to live. Okay, I want a I want a fruitful marriage with my wife, uh, with my husband. I want a fruitful, fruitful marriage. I want I want my kids someday to want to hang out with me when they don't live with me. Okay, so let's go all the so I like that. I like beginning there and going all the way back and thinking those thoughts, beginning to say those words again, this opportunity we have to speak life or death. Yeah, we have that opportunity, we can do that. So let's let's begin with all of those and then kind of can um cascading down there. You asked the question at the beginning of that, Chris. I just uh I jumped in. What was that? What was the question to that?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Oh, just just how maybe even how you've seen it play out. You know what I mean? Like just the your thinking leading to the results that you've had. You've had a great career in multiple areas now. Was there a thought process that kind of went into that? You've you have a great family, you have really good kids. Yeah. Like what maybe some of your thought process that led to some of the results that you've gotten.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I I think some of that has been was shaped all throughout of just seeing how I think a predominant thought I have in general is just everything is figure-otable. I've at this in fact in the business we had before an RO before, that was one of our core values, is just this idea of resourcefulness, everything being figure-otable. Now, I had a great example. I had a great example of both of my parents. Both of my parents are really, really resourceful. And when things got tough, they buckled down. You know, my mom, um, when my dad's business um suffered, my dad did everything he could for the family. My mom went back to work. She worked for 20 years, she was a special ed teacher. And so they they were just resourceful and gritty. We talked about grit before, also. So I I have a really good example of that. So, what my paradigm maybe doesn't match for others is maybe you didn't have as good of a didn't necessarily have as good. Of an example before you, but it is funny though, Chris, just having that example, seeing it work for others, it applies to the core thought for me, and so it manifests itself. And so I would encourage you, maybe for that person I had breakfast with a guy um yesterday, a super young guy who hasn't had a great example. And the biggest encouragement was okay, now let's start to reform the people you're around. Because what will start to influence is those thoughts or the words. It's funny how all these work kind of together. Thoughts lead to words, but then the words you hear lead to thoughts. It's kind of all of these kind of working together. But who are you surrounding yourself with? What what words of what words are they speaking over you? What are you hearing for them? Do you need to make start making some edits to the people that are around you so that you can begin to hear words of life? This is why people feel confident around you, Chris. You said at the very, very beginning, is because you like to instill them with confidence. And so it becomes self-fulfilling. So for me, that was one is just this idea of resourcefulness. And so that's why, whatever, you know, when I left commercial real estate to go into a startup, it was not a real ding to identity or anything like that. Cause I just said, okay, I'm gonna go apply resourcefulness to that since that business ended, and now I'm in, you know, doing speaking and podcasting and writing and all that kind of stuff and coaching with with brave coaches, all that's the same thing. Like, oh, we can figure this one out too. And what's fun about it for me is that that level of resourcefulness almost becomes like a little adventure each time. Like, how are we gonna do this now? So for me, that's how for me, that's a lot of how I probably view the world, and it comes as a result of great examples I have for my parents.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Wow. But you're thinking that way, you're thinking I can figure this out. That's right. And so then every other part of your life starts to have to align with that. So then you've got these results of man, we did figure it out. This did work, this did open a new door, you know what I mean? And that's just the life that you're living. So it's not, it's not like lucky, it's like, no, I was thinking like that. Yeah, that's right. I believe I can do it. So I would I would challenge everybody with with a couple things. Be clear on how you think about you. Let's start there. You know what I'm saying? Like, I love to look out, but maybe the the first action item here would be okay, if I want to be aligned and I really do want to fulfill the assignments on my life, like, how do you view yourself? And I think it's it's totally okay to be very honest here. You know what I mean? But if you're that that's kind of why I started with that question, like, what do you love about yourself? Man, that's a great question, it's fun, but it's also cool to really like list it out, like write it down. I'm good at these things. This is how I view myself. Here's a couple things I'm working on. That's part of being honest about it. And then I think the second thing, just to get our thoughts right, is get real clear on actually what your assignments are. You know, and I won't spoil it for you, but think about it. Like for me, like I'm a dad. That's an assignment.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

I have an assignment to my wife Molly, I have an assignment to the brave group, I have an assignment to the athletes that we represent. Yeah, I have an assignment to my friends. I want to be good at that, right? So it's cool to look at it and then say, okay, because because those are my assignments, now you see how it ties together. I have to be thinking about myself correctly and get this in alignment, get these thoughts right so that I can actually fulfill the assignment part of it.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Wow. You like that, Umbiga? I mean, I here's what I like. What I love about this and what I see ourselves in all these episodes, one thing I see is that all of them, uh everything touches the other. Is that what we're talking about when you talk about your assignment? We talked about this in another episode. This is stewardship. What do I have in my hand right now? And so then you're taking it at the next level. And okay, how can I be aligned with this assignment? How can my thoughts, because again, we talk stewardship, what's in your hand taking every moment, golden blocks of the day, all that kind of stuff. If you haven't listened to that episode, please go listen. It's a fantastic episode. But when you talk about that, then we're talking about now, like, okay, stewardship requires an alignment of thought, is exactly what you just said. And how cool is that? Is that I can go be great, I can make sure that I am lined up in the exact position, using all the energy and excitement and vigor I have with an aligned mind for my assignment right now and be great with what's in my hand.

unknown 26:16

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Okay, so if we're thinking right, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep us going in this process. Now I really want everybody to think through the lens of are the teams of my life aligned? And this is where it gets pretty salty. Okay, this is cool. And I I I consider teams like the friends in your life, your family, and probably your workplace. Okay, so if those three categories are are aligned, I think you're really gonna like what a day looks like. Right? Like, yeah, I I I want I want to interact with my friends, but there's got to be an alignment there. I want to get along with the people I work with. We spend a lot of time there. And I didn't get to choose my family, but we might as well have some alignment there. Right. So I think there's a lot of different exercises. If you ever want to take a look at like bravecoaches.com, we've got resources for you there. Stuff like that's great. But let's go there just a little bit, Joey. Like, is there one of those that you want to dive into? We've talked about friends another episode. You've got the workplace stuff, family stuff. Like, where do you think we should spend a little bit of time when it comes to aligning our teams?

SPEAKER_01 27:22

One thing I love about this, Chris, this is this this question is such a reflection of Chris Hart because it's you're referring to teams like your friends being your team and your family being your team. It reminds me it reminds me of one of my favorite stories post um when I lived in Oklahoma at the time, when post-9-11, obviously the world is you know is upside down. And Bob Stoops was the coach at OU at the time, and there was a story that was written in the Tulsa world about his sons at night who were, you know, Drake and his and his other his brother, they're like five and three years old, and they would kneel beside their bed and they prayed for Coach Bush, referring to President Bush, which I just it's one of my favorite. I I met Bob Stoops once. I asked him if that was true. He goes, Oh, yeah, that was true. They prayed for Coach Bush every night, which I love that. So the teams, I love you referring to your family as your team, is such a crisp question. But yes, I mean, listen, this is we all know the story, you know, in the Old Testament, the the uh the Tower of Babel, you know, the Tower of Babel, all the people they build this tower, and then God confuses their languages. That's when you know the languages are spread out. So there's a line that God says in that story that works opposite from here. And he refresh he looks down at them, he sees this this massive tower they've built, and he says, If speaking as one voice, they can do this, there will be no limit to what they can do. And I think about that, and I think now obviously that was that was maybe in the negative at that time, but I think about that. Think about one of the earliest stories that we have in written history saying that, and think about if we could apply that same principle to you said to the teams we have the friends who work, the family. If working as one voice, imagine what we could do, there'd be no limit to what we could accomplish. What I immediately think of there, Chris, I think of the great enemy of that, even as I said it, the great enemy of that is pride. Yeah, that's what's gonna kill it. That's what's gonna kill speaking as one voice is gonna be pride, and it's gonna get in slowly, insidiously. It's gonna be comp it's gonna be comparison or it's gonna be entitlement or whatever it is. But I believe the potential to kill that alignment that will shut down your ability to accomplish something that would otherwise have no limits is going to be pride.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Well, think about the churches that it's unraveled. You know, think about the sports teams. Yeah, great, wildly talented team, but that you had a couple prideful guys that disrupted the whole environment, right? Think about the families. It's like, no, I'm right. I mean, whatever, whatever your last Thanksgiving dinner was that you got too political on, it's because somebody was overly prideful about. Yeah, you know what I mean? So the disruption of alignment with pride at the root is a great point in revelation. We're gonna we're gonna really unpack pride on a different episode. It's gonna be pretty froggy, but that's a great thing to keep in mind. And I think about this too. Let's just go, let's go workplace. Yeah, okay. Because you you see this happen. People are, man, I I'm underpaid for what I'm doing, or I'm a better sales guy than that guy. That's pride, right? But what it's doing is then getting us out of alignment where it could have been great. So it's it's interesting. I think there's a couple cool questions we could ask in the workplace that I'll just kind of throw out there today. But I love how you set this up because we can't ask these questions if there's pride.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Okay, so so keep that in mind. Like, let's operate from humility and ask a couple questions. Number one, are you and make this personal because then you could also ask this to people that work for you. But if you're gonna take this personal, like at your job, if you want to be in alignment, are you operating in your strength? And again, remove pride from this and just say, like, is this my strength or not? Okay. Number two, are you clear on your lane to run in? Man, clarity is everything. Yeah, and those two are different because sometimes we're not in our strength and are looking for something different. Other times, because we're not in our strength, we swerve out of our lane, right? Or, you know, my strength is over here. So think about those two because alignment's there. And then I love this question, and again, through the lens of humility, are you taking ownership of what you've been given? This ties into stewardship, which we've talked about. But are you are you stewarding the opportunity you've been given at work? And I think if those three things are present, that's just an example on one of your teams. But think about you know, however big your company is, if you've got eight other people or if you've got a hundred other people, if everybody on the team is actually operating in their strength, if everybody's clear on their lane to run in, and if everybody's taking ownership of what they're doing, I think we just unpacked what Jim Collins was saying, which like, hey, there's the vision. Great. That was 1% of it. 99% was these things actually being in place so that we could progress forward.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Well, what's cool about that is it's starting with that third, am I taking ownership? Here's what I think about that. I think about when we talk about the stewardship on the stewardship episode, we talk about the parable of the talents when it said, You've been faithful over a few of a few things that will make you ruler over many. So, what will happen, I believe, if you are taking ownership and you're saying everyone scrubs the toilets. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna scrub the toilets, I'm gonna do whatever I need to. I'm gonna take ownership of this and I'm gonna give everything I can. I'm gonna be focused on the small things. What will naturally happen is you will find yourself in a position with an assignment where you're operating in your strengths. Come on. It'll it will naturally feed itself just by you saying, again, taking the pride out and saying, I'm gonna do what I need to do right now in my current role. That's gonna lead me to be in my strengths, and that's gonna lead others to not only for me to have clarity that I'm in the lane, but clarity for others to say, Oh, I need Chris in that lane. Oh man, Chris is Chris will do anything. I need him right there because gosh, I've seen him there and he's great. So naturally, in an organization or in a team, whether that's family, friends, or workplace, you're everybody's gonna naturally find themselves in their lane, operating in their strengths when they take ownership over the small things.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Wow. Yeah, it's kind of it it creates a funnel. Yeah, right? It's it it has no choice. This is where it must end. This this is this is the fruit from the effort of alignment. Yes. I think this will be cool, Joey. Let's I know we're kind of hitting some topics here, but I want to make the case for alignment in our faith. Okay. Just because this is kind of near and true to our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

But I do see a lot of people with questions, misunderstandings, and faith's interesting because it can kind of feel ethereal. And so I wanted to give a little bit of practical on how I think we can get in alignment with our faith. Because at the end of the day, like we could have started here, that's the cornerstone, it's the foundation. Right. And listen, as you're listening, a lot of different uh belief systems and all that kind of stuff, but I want you to kind of take this and make this personal for you. But but this here's here's a couple questions I would think everybody should ask. And then, Joey, tell me maybe how you've processed some of this. But number one, if we're gonna get your faith in alignment, I would ask you this question first. What do you legitimately believe to be true about God? And this is interesting, like if you went to like a church's website, they would probably have like their core beliefs. But I think we have to have those as individuals. What do you actually believe to be true? Because it sets up the second question, and there's some power in this. What are you actually believing God for? And it's hard to believe God for anything if you don't know what you believe to be true about him. So I hope you're seeing kind of the pattern of alignment here. I can't believe for uh increase at my job if I don't believe that he's a God that that provides prosperity. Right? I can't believe for healing if I don't believe that he is the healer, right? So I need that kind of alignment in place. And listen, I'm great, like believe what you want, but I think whatever you're believing, there has to be an alignment to actually get the benefit of that relationship.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

And when you're saying an alignment, you your faith being in alignment with what? Are you saying these the the uh these two questions being in alignment or your faith being aligned with what? Just for for clarity.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

I would say your faith being aligned with what the word of God says. Okay, okay. You know what the word says, and people can interpret it different ways, but it's like, man, if the word says it, I believe it, right? So I want to know what it says so that I can apply to it. And then I would say yes, then these two questions have to go together.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

This is what I believe to be true, so now this is what I can believe for.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

And there's something powerful about like living this life of faith and actually believing for things. Because what if we ask this question? Like, if God doesn't get involved, then it won't happen. I want to believe like that, right? Otherwise, it's kind of leaving it up to us, and what's the point of aligning my faith, anyways?

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

If it if it's just my own strength, then there's always going to be a limitation on it, and I don't want any of us to live there. But I think to get into this like faith life and and living in a supernatural place, I need to know what the word says, I need to know what I believe of that, so that I can ask accordingly to what I believe.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that this is um, I think about for both of us who have great dads, it's my answer feels a lot easier, probably than a lot of people who maybe don't, um who maybe didn't have that example. Because if you say, What do I believe about God? I believe if just as simply as I can be, God is a good father. Yeah. And and so it's I think about the benefit I have because I have only seen the example of a good father. And I I I think I father out of, I father out of both of those. So I I I remember Daniel Grothy, a friend of ours in Colorado Springs now. Remember after he had his first child, he I was asking him about it. He was talking about how transformational it was. He goes, Man, I've for my whole life I've known God the Son, and I'm starting to understand who God the Father is. And it was, you know, and then I I remember there's I've I remember I told you this story early on when Harrison, my son, was gosh, eight months, he was he was screaming for his bottle. Man, he wanted his bottle. He was screaming, it was and I it was warmed up, it was in my hand, he's screaming for it. And I remember saying out loud, with with no intent to make it sound spiritual, I said, and he can't understand, he the kid couldn't talk, he's eight months old. I said, Harrison, I've given you your bottle every time you've needed a bottle, and I'm gonna give you a bottle every time you need it from the rest of your life. And I just remember I said, Oh, no, I think I said I'm gonna feed you. I've fed you every time you've need to be fed, I'm gonna feed you every time you need to be fed for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

So good.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

And I thought, okay, so here I am, here I am, as you know, in you know, concerning myself about finances or concerning myself about the future or whatever it may be, forgetting that God says, I've fed you every time you need to be fed. I'm gonna feed you every time you need to be fed. So for me, that's it, it's it's a it becomes easier, and my heart goes out to to those of you listening who maybe didn't have a good father, who doesn't have that answer. But I do pray and hope, I do believe whether you had a good example or not, I still know that God's a good father and he's a good father for you, regardless of the example you had. So I believe that for you, and I I pray you do have that revelation in your life that God is a good father. Now, what's cool about that, Chris, is for me, like what I'm trusting God for, and this is gonna sound, I don't mean for this to sound generic. I I'm trusting God for good things. And when I say that, I believe, I have a deeply held belief that God is the only one with the authority to call something good. I don't have that authority. I don't know. We've talked about this in other episodes. I don't know what's good or what's not good for me. I think if I chose all of the good things that were good for me, I probably would have a pretty spoiled life that I thought were good for me. So I'm in I'm trusting God. I'm gonna be diligent with what I have, trusting that you're gonna give good things as a result. And that good I pray as I delight myself in God. As the Psalms say, as you delight yourself in God, He'll give you the desires of your heart. So I'm I'm believing that my desires will change in conformity with what he believes is good.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

It's great. So what a cool idea that we established what we believe to be true, and then we get in a place of faith. Because I mean, most people listening, you're not like really sweating your next meal.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Right. So and and if you are, man, reach out, let us know, we'll help you out. But the reality is like there's a lot of comfort just by living in America. And so the reality is like, where can we actually get in a place of faith? I like that. And then I would say keep in mind, this is under the umbrella of alignment. The only thing that then would get us out of alignment is fear. And so that would be the final piece as we're talking alignment in faith, is actually asking yourself and confronting the reality of what are you afraid of. And if we can do that, then I think we can get out in front of and we we can be because here's the reality we're gonna either feed faith or fear. Yeah. And so what we're gonna be great at is feeding faith and starving fear. But I'd love everybody to identify where does fear try to present itself so that we can confront it with faith, have a couple specific verses that are gonna hit it right in the mouth, and now we're on top of it, not succumbing to it.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Will you talk a little about fear? Break that down a little bit. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah, fear is is the stuff that's holding you back. I think that any excuse that we would make has a root of fear in it. We don't want to be embarrassed, we've got a fear of failure, we've got a fear of change. Man, the reality, some of you guys listening have a fear of success, which sounds crazy, but it's like it's the reality that you're like, man, if if I do get to this point, could I sustain it? So I'm afraid of that, right? And so fear becomes this hindrance, fear becomes this lid. And if we're gonna have proper alignment with our faith, I want us to recognize where that's trying to come in and just pop it. Man, God hasn't given you a spirit of fear.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

What he did give you is power, love, and a sound mind. But we've got to be thinking that way. Remember, all this comes back to where does our thoughts start? If we can get that aligned right, then we're gonna get the results of a life of faith, not fear. How's that hit you when we're talking fear, Joey?

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Well, it it's fine. I was trying to look up a the story, a story I read the other day in uh in Judges about Gideon, Gideon, who was called Mighty Warrior. He was called mighty warrior even before he had become a mighty warrior. So it's funny, God called him mighty warrior and he grew into that. And there's this, there's a there's a section I wish I had in front of me, but it says it's uh he tells Gideon to go down into his the enemy's camp. And he says, But if you're afraid, take your take your assistant with you. And then the assistant's name is like Pula or something like that. And the next verse says, So Gideon and Pula walked into the camp. And so it's and it was awesome. I'm reading this. They didn't explicitly say he was afraid, but just by the story, it laid out like, oh, he was feeling fear. But what we do, so I want to encourage you if you feel fear, Gideon, mighty warrior, felt fear. Some of us can feel fear, but where it really becomes damaging is when we let that fear cripple us from doing what we need to do. So he still went in that camp, but and he also felt fear. It was both and, and so we can feel those fears. Now, again, if we have that, again, back to what I said. I I I know I have a good father. So I feel fear at times. I know I have a good father, but I but I hopefully don't allow that to cripple me from taking action on the things I'm supposed to do next.

unknown 43:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

We covered a whole lot, we went a lot of different directions with alignment, right? And you know, it's it's pretty cool to think about aligning our thoughts, aligning our teams, aligning our faith. But Joe, you know how we how we like to do here. With all of that being said, for everybody listening to to live this brave and big life, what what are some of your takeaways? What's the next, hopefully seemingly small step to really start walking out this life of alignment?

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Everybody listening is going to have an instant thing come to their mind when I say it, and you said it earlier, is I think the first step, the absolute, the small step is what is your wedge? What identify that wedge that is keeping you from moving, from progressing, from being in alignment, from being in alignment with the life that you want to live, from the marriage you want to have, from the the friend circle that you want to have, from the the the having the kids and the the you know the relationship with them that you want to have. So I want everybody, and it's gonna require introspection, but you probably already know it, but think through that wedge. What's that wedge? Now go get with somebody and tell them. So go say, I got this wedge, and let's let once you figure out how can you two together, how can you fight like heck to make sure you remove that wedge? So to me, the small step is we gotta identify that wedge first, and then we have to take some proactive action along with somebody to try to eliminate it. What about you, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Man, I'm gonna stay in the same lane as usual. My only different thought there would be are you aware of a result that you wish was different?

SPEAKER_01 45:19

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

And it's probably directly tied to this wedge that Joey was just talking about. But keep in mind if we don't like the result, we've got to go back and change a thought. So it'd be great to kind of recognize, and and you know, anytime we're talking about this, I would say in the next seven days, like this week, think about it, process it, but but come up with it. What's the wedge? Or what's a result that you don't like that you're getting right now? And let's change the way we're thinking about it, and we will absolutely change the result that we're getting. That's an alignment.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

And please do share this episode with somebody for the person you want to get that you think, hey, I could use this, please share that with them. Let's keep spreading the goodness here because as we start to align with others on this, again, there's nothing there's no limit to what we can accomplish. So continue to take these different layers of alignment we've talked about and include other people in your journey for the sake of their journey as well.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Nothing's impossible. A misalignment is the only thing that would keep you from living this great life that God has for you. So fight for alignment. Get it right in these key areas and watch the fruit pile up. It's on.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Okay, real quick, triple S for us. Subscribe, share, star. Give us five stars wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for joining us this week on Brave and Big. Brave and Big is produced by Stonest Podcast and the brilliant Miles All Britain. We will see you next week.