All Episodes
Previous Next
June 3, 2022 - Doug Collins Podcast
40:15
Leadership Lessons from Ted Lasso and even Rocky Balboa
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Hey everybody, I don't know about you, but as you've watched out over the world, the war in Russia and Ukraine is not just isolated to Eastern Europe.
It's spread all over the world and you can see it in market instabilities.
You can see it here.
People who do not think that that war is affecting you, all you gotta do is look at gas prices.
You look at your food prices.
You see the global change that has happened.
But you know something that's also affected investments as well, and I've said all along, Legacy Precious Metals is your navigator.
They're the ones that see you through to get to the next level.
The good news about this is, even with market volatility, market instability, you've got options.
And gold prices are rising as investors turn to gold, and gold presents a hedge against this inflation and that protects you against the weakening dollar, which we are seeing.
Legacy Precious Metals is the only company I trust to deal with gold and silver and the other precious metals.
You need this investment.
You need this as part of your portfolio to keep you buffered from what we're seeing in the world.
War and volatility in the market.
This is where you need to be.
Call Legacy Precious Metals today.
Be proactive about this.
Get on board with it.
Call them at 866-528-1903, 866-528-1903.
Or you can download their free investors guide at LegacyPMInvestments.com. LegacyPMInvestments.com, your navigator in a volatile world of investments.
You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, it's Doug Collins.
I've got a fun one for you today.
You know, a lot of times I have been involved in leadership in many levels all throughout my adult life, whether it be pastoring a church, senior pastor for over 11 years, been in Congress, been in the Georgia House of Representatives, been in the military.
Throughout all of that, you pick up a lot Of understanding about leadership.
And you understand that everyone has the potential to become a good leader.
You know, there's always this, you know, the question always comes up, are great leaders born?
Well, the obvious answer to that is yes, they're born.
But I believe, like many others, that great leaders have certain characteristics that help them I think that's important because everybody is influenced in their life.
And I go back to one of my teachers who is...
Someone who influenced my life a great deal was a guy named John Maxwell.
If you've ever read any of John Maxwell's stuff, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, 21 Qualities of a Leader, they build on things that any person can work on.
You can work on your communication skills.
You can work on how you lift other people up.
There's all kinds of things to do to work at.
The leadership within you.
And I think that's what's missing so much in our society today is that we just sort of expect it and we don't think we have to work on things to get better.
Well, leadership's one of those that I've always, like I said, I've always been attracted to.
I've read lots of books.
I've taught leadership.
I've been a part of it.
But I found one the other day, and this is going to be a fun one.
This is a fun episode of the Doug Collins Show because I had some friends who sent along.
We're talking about the show, Ted Lasso.
If you've never...
I saw this on, I believe it's Apple TV, and it's about an American football coach who is recruited to lead an English Premier League team, a soccer team.
So this is an American football coach going to coach a team called AFC Richmond in the English Premier League.
Again, sort of the fish out of water story.
But if you watch the show, and I wish this was all original, some of it's original, some of it's not, but it was great stuff that was put together based around sort of this Ted Lasso character who goes into a strange place with not a lot of background in what he is actually the manager of, the coach of, and that is the soccer team because of his background in American football.
But one of the things he does so well in this show The show, the actor Jason Sacks does, is that he actually shows that people can adapt to their surroundings if they follow basically some serious simple principles.
And for you out there, maybe today you're in there and maybe you're listening to this podcast.
Maybe you're a young person.
And you're a young person listening to this podcast.
You've been involved in politics.
Or maybe you're just getting started in your business career.
You just graduated from college.
And you're saying...
What can I do to gain skills?
And what can I do to go up in my chosen career?
Well, I've got some lessons here for you that I think are just good lessons.
They're fun lessons.
We're going to have some fun with them this morning.
And even if you're middle in your career, maybe you're 40, 50 years old, you're still trying to maybe do that breakthrough.
Maybe some reminders of things that you may have known in the past will help.
And for those of us who just like, one, a good TV show, number two, good life lessons.
Here's some things that we're just going to spend a few minutes on this morning.
Have some fun.
A good way to end...
A good way to have any week of the podcast is just to talk about something.
So here are some things that...
Some takeaways, if you would.
Are there some life lessons from the...
And I believe you can learn from anything.
And TV is a lot...
Shows and movies do a lot of that...
So here's some lessons today on the Doug Collins Podcast.
Glad you're here.
This is one that you're going to want to save and share with friends about Ted Lasso and life's lessons that you can learn on leadership.
The first one that Ted brings out is just be yourself.
Be yourself.
You're the best product that's ever been made that is named you.
And I see so many people, and I see this in politics, and again, we talk a lot about politics here on the podcast.
We talk about things that are going on in the world.
And I see so many people trying to be something they're not.
They try to emulate, and that's fine, to find somebody you like and find somebody that you think does it well and try to gain some of those skills.
I remember when I was growing up, I used to love to watch baseball, football, basketball.
I watched it on TV. I had my heroes growing up, and I'd want to get out and imitate my heroes.
But as you grow, that was good.
But if all I was was an imitation of someone else, then I would never become who I'm supposed to be.
And I know you sound corny, and I know some of you are saying, oh, I've heard this before.
But there's a difference in hearing and understanding.
And hearing and understanding is hearing one thing is, I've heard it, and many times if you don't apply it or you listen to it and you don't really apply it in your life or you ignore it in your life, then there's no understanding.
Hearing is hearing something, you know, taking it in.
Understanding is taking what you have heard and then apply it in your life.
Ted Lasso, again, he's quirky.
He's weird.
He's just interesting.
He tells weird stories.
He just reacts in himself.
He doesn't go over and try to become English.
He doesn't try to go over and try to become something other than he's not.
And I see so many people in this world, especially on the political realm, Don't be somebody you're not.
One of the big things lately in the last few years is this idea that I'm going to be like Donald Trump.
I'm going to be like President Trump.
I'm going to go out there and just be the bull in a china shop, not ever take no for that.
I'm just going to go straight at it and realize that that's the way that you do politics.
No holds barred, go get it.
The problem is, and let me just tell you, you're not Donald Trump.
Donald Trump spent a lifetime being Donald Trump as president.
He was Donald Trump.
The one thing I can know about knowing President Trump, as I do, is that Donald Trump is the same person in the Oval Office, outside the Oval Office, on the golf course, in the boardroom.
Donald Trump, in all of my experiences with him in different environments, has always been he has been the same person.
And that is a lifetime of experience.
Don't just simply say, well, that's the only way to do it.
That's the best way to find the ways that work for you.
And if you're out there in politics today and you're saying, well, I'm going to be an outsider.
I've seen so many candidates lately who have run as, quote, outsiders, who had no more business running as an outsider as I do trying to run a marathon this morning.
Now, run two or three miles?
I can do that.
Run a marathon?
Not going to happen.
I'm not ready for it.
And I see them running in this environment where they think they have to be something they're not.
How many of you are getting up and going to work?
Maybe you're working out this morning.
Maybe you're on your way to work.
Maybe you're listening to this on a trip.
And you're sitting there for just a second.
And I'm just going to ask you a personal question.
Are you you?
Are you being you?
Are you trying to be something that everybody else wants you to be or something that you think that you should be?
Well, look, everybody can get better.
Everybody has ways to be a better version of themselves.
But if you try to be somebody you're not, then it's going to come across as inauthentic and it's not going to work.
I have got flyer after flyer after flyer, mail piece after mail piece, recordings of commercials of candidates for public office, for business owners, for others who try to be somebody that they're not.
First rule, really the first thought that comes out of Ted Lasso, just be yourself.
Be the authentic person that you are.
Remember, there is only one you, and that's the reason you were made.
Fulfill that role, and everything else will come to pass.
The next thing is, just tell the truth.
This is hard.
And it may sound funny to you when I say tell the truth, but just sometimes the situations that you're in just call for saying that we need to tell the truth.
This is where we're at.
This is the situation we're in.
And here's how we can fix it.
I knew as a pastor and as a member of Congress, one of the first rules that I had for my staff was this.
What I ask you is just never surprise me.
If you have something that is going wrong or you have something that's bad, just don't surprise me.
Don't let it spring up because you're too scared to tell me the truth, that either I messed up or I didn't do what I was supposed to do or you didn't do what you're supposed to do, but don't surprise me.
Folks, in your businesses, in your lives, in your families, there is a great lesson to be learned is just don't surprise each other.
That is when the most struggle comes.
As someone who has been a counselor for years And dealing with this, what I find so many times, whether it's business relationships or personal relationships or political relationships, however you want to put them, it is that surprise factor that, oh, well, I didn't want to hurt your feelings.
Well, sometimes you're just going to hurt people's feelings.
Now, that doesn't mean that you're out there, you know, going around intentionally being a jerk.
That's not what I'm saying.
But sometimes the honesty hurts.
Some of the best lessons in my life have come from people that were able to tell me the truth.
I've told this story many times in speaking engagements.
When I was pastoring a young pastor, I stood at the back of the church, and as the church was getting out, you know, parishioners would come by and the people who came that morning, and most all of them would come out, Pastor, great job, love the sermon, great service, love the sermon, thanks for sharing.
And, you know, as a pastor, and for pastors out there who may be listening to this, you know, that sort of boosts your ego up a little bit, you know, and I'll say it, you know, you worked on your sermon, you want to get it up very good, and so you're looking for that affirmation, and hey, we did it well.
Well, a sweet lady came up in her name.
She's still alive.
She's over 100 years old, named Rosetta Dyer.
Came to me one morning and she looked at me.
This was about 25, 30 years ago.
So she was going right along and she was just wonderful at being a sounding board for honesty.
She came by and she said, Preacher, I enjoyed your sermon.
Well, of course, I was feeling pretty good.
Miss Rosetta liked my sermon.
And then she looked at me, she held onto my hand for a second and she said, I liked it better the first time this morning, but it was okay.
And I stepped there for a second.
I said, what?
The first time?
And what she reminded me of was I had gotten to a point in my sermon and I thought I had to repeat myself because maybe I just didn't think people were understanding it the first time.
And I repeated part of my message and what she was telling me was sort of a great life lesson is make your point and then stop.
You know, that's the point of all messages.
And I hear so many speeches and I hear so many people out there giving lectures and everything.
And the answer is this, as a seminary professor used to tell me, is graze where you won't have as many points as you want, but make a point.
For me, that morning, I learned that my lesson was to make a point.
Did that burst my bubble that morning?
Yeah, it did.
Did Rosetta Dyer take a chance by telling me the truth that I would be mad or upset?
Yes, but at the same point in time, I learned from truth.
We've got to be honest with people.
When we look out across the landscape of life, you've got to be honest with people.
when you're honest with people, then they respond back to you.
And then they respond with honesty in a whole different relationship.
First, it starts off with being yourself.
The second is, is being truthful about the situation around you.
That doesn't mean that you have to be harsh.
That doesn't mean you have to be ugly, so to speak, as my mom would say.
You don't have to be ugly when you say it, but tell the truth.
And if something's not going good, then be honest enough to say, hey, this Maybe we need to change.
Truth is what will let you find the next step if something is not working.
And truth will help you get better if you're not.
Ted Lasso, I mean, one of the things is he didn't like to confront, but when he did, he knew he had to and he would confront.
And despite that discomfort, he would find the strength to have those conversations.
You need to find the same way to have those conversations in your life.
What else do we have?
The next one, in looking at this, the friend who sent this to me, I like the way they put this.
And they just said never take anything personally.
Now, that's much easier said than done.
For all of us listening to this podcast this morning, we all take things personal.
I can tell you as a member of Congress, you're out there, you take things personally.
If people say something that you're, whatever, look, I've been called everything in the world before.
And if you take it all personally, then there's a tendency that you'll shy away from the truth, Maybe what they're saying is actually true.
And you don't want to take it personally because you're not being who you really are.
And if you're never taking things personally, then that's the best way to have it.
Now, do you take things and learn from them?
Yes.
But what I see too many people doing is they take it personal and then they won't grow from it.
Things in life, criticism in life, it can be your best friend.
Failure in life, as Thomas Edison and many inventors would tell you, is the very thing that you need in life.
Failure is failing forward is the way you do it.
Making a mistake, learning from that mistake, and growing from that mistake is really what was said.
When inventing things, you know, the inventor said, you know, he had failed.
He finally got it right.
And they said, well, wow, you got this.
Somebody said to him, you got this right.
That was a great, you know, find.
He said, yes, but I did not find this invention without all the mistakes before it.
So that you have, you know, a lot of times you have many mistakes to find the right answer, but you can't give up and you can't let criticism go to personal.
And when it comes to personal, then you start turning inside.
You become, you know, there's a tendency to become bitter.
You start looking at the world as someone that is out to get you instead of something that you can learn from.
And I think Lasso, I mean, all you got to do is watch the TV show.
I mean, he stays in trouble with the fans, the press, everybody else.
But he doesn't take those insults personally.
I've seen this in politics.
You've got to let some things roll off your back.
Does that make it easy?
No.
But what's the alternative?
Sitting there and brooding over it?
Getting mad about it?
Seeking revenge about it?
That's not going to help you either because in the end, the revenge is never as sweet as you think it's going to be.
But if you learn to accept things, you roll things off your back, I'm asked the question a lot, Doug, what does it take to get into politics?
And of course, they're looking for the answer of, oh, well, you need the money, or you need to go do this, and go to this school, or meet these people, and all of it will work out.
And I tell them all the time, I said, look, I said, being in politics, you need two things.
The first is you need a very thick skin.
You need an alligator skin.
You need a skin like an alligator.
Because you can't let things just, you can't take them personally.
You've got to be able to roll them off the back and move right on and smile through it all.
But you've also got to have a tender heart.
And a tender heart means that you're concerned and caring about those in life that you're there to serve.
Public service is public service.
It's not about self-service.
It's about public service.
And to have a tender heart means that you understand the needs.
Even if you disagree with them, you're able to reach out with empathy and compassion to those that you're serving.
And you've got to have both because if all you have is a rough exterior, if all you have is that alligator hide, then you're going to become cold and unfeeling and uncaring and you're not going to be able to help anybody.
And if all you have is a tender heart but no outside tough skin, you're going to fall for everything.
And so at the end of the day, you've got to have both.
You've got to be caring and tender, but you've also got to have something that allows you to let these things just roll off and not take them personal.
And I know that's hard.
And maybe you're struggling with some areas right now in your own life that you're taking things too personal.
It doesn't mean that you don't need to address them.
It doesn't mean that they may not be a sensitive one.
Sometimes when we take them too personally, it means that they're actually things that we know may be wrong, but we don't want to deal with them.
But the reality is, if you take it personally, it means that typically you just eat it, you don't talk about it, it becomes inside and internal and it doesn't.
Keeps you from becoming who you need to be.
But if you take the outside criticism, if you take some of the things and say, okay, what part of this is true, what part of it's not true, and then work on the parts that are true, then you're able to take the criticism, you're able to take it, not take it personal, and be able to move forward.
I'm often asked, well, Doug, how do you not take it personal?
I mean, if they called you every name in the book, they called you...
Well, number one, most of the people, especially in this age of keyboard courage, and yes, that's exactly what it is, keyboard courage, how many people will stand behind a...
Anonymous Twitter handle or Instagram handle or a YouTube page or a Snapchat, whatever that you may be using, Facebook.
Don't use your real name and yet blast criticism to others.
What I've always thought about is this, is if you're going to blast criticism, if you want to get back into understanding and you want to take the stand that you're going to be critical of somebody, then actually put your name to it.
Don't hide behind some Twitter handle or some social media handle who nobody knows who you are, and frankly, they don't care.
In fact, the honest answer there is if all you have is keyboard courage that you're willing to type out a nasty email or type out a nasty tweet and send it, but you're not willing to put your name to it, frankly, I don't have a lot of use for you.
I mean, because if that's what you want to be, if you want to be the anonymous bomb thrower, so to speak, to other people and to try to take down other people, then you're not helping yourself and you're not helping anybody else.
And frankly, your opinion is lessened because of that.
So you've got to be able to do this, but you've also got to have a way to go through this.
And when you're being in the situation Ted Lasso was and being criticized, everything he does, it wasn't right, fish out of water story.
You know, the thing that surprised me was just how...
How positive he was and how positive he is.
You know, the enthusiasm can do attitude.
Can you generate that in yourself?
Yes.
And sometimes you have to.
There's going to be things in your life that you have to look at and you grow into that when you have a positive attitude about it, it's going to go better.
How many of us in life have those times when we're told to do something or we're asked to do something?
Maybe it'll be part of your honey-do list.
Maybe it's part of something you're called at work and you don't want to do it and you go into it with this kind of, I don't want to do this.
You grumble, you gripe, you moan.
And it's just not a pleasant experience.
How many times could it just a positive attitude say, look, I'm going to get this done, then I get to go do what I want to do.
And that kind of enthusiasm And can do and willing to try can be annoying to people who don't want to do anything, who are curmudgeons in their own way.
But I'm going to tell you, things get done in life by people who are ready to do them.
People who actually have a positive attitude and say, internally, I can do this.
Now, it may come across in different ways, but what kind of attitude do you have?
Is your attitude crappy?
Then maybe you're getting results of what you deserve here.
How many times in life do you go into something and say, I don't want to do that, but I'll do it anyway?
Okay, is that going to inspire confidence if you're a leader?
Is that going to inspire confidence around your team?
Is that going to, if you give somebody something to say, I don't think you can do this, but hey, go try.
Okay, is that positive thinking?
Is that, I mean, if you don't think they can do it, do you either, number one, as a leader, you haven't trained them properly how to do it, or number two, you shouldn't have them as part of the team or definitely shouldn't be giving them a project.
Because the leadership mantle falls to those who are in leadership, not those who are being told to do something.
You've got to be able to help there.
So positive thinking, and also what I found is positive thinking brings people to you.
People are attracted to things that they want to be.
You're going to be attracted to people who are loving, who are kind, who are compassionate, who are leaders, who are strong.
You're attracted.
People are attracted to that.
Now, some people may be fearful of that because their personality may not be the same, but people are drawn to those who have a vision.
They're drawn to those who have a positive attitude.
They're drawn to those who know who they are.
Just these things that we've been talking about here, people are drawn to Ted Lasso not because he is just this...
He's an amazing person.
He's drawn to it because he's authentic.
He knows what he wants to do.
He's willing to take criticism.
He's willing to grow and he's willing to have a positive attitude to try and get things done.
My question for you listening to this podcast today is how's your attitude?
How many times I have found in my life when I'm having a bad day or a bad week, you know who it comes back to?
Me.
It's my attitude.
I remember just the other day my wife wanted me to do something and it's still not done.
But yet when I thought about it, it made me mad.
I just got frustrated with it because I didn't want to do it.
I still don't want to do it.
And so I've got to look at it from my perspective.
What's my attitude?
My attitude gets better?
Then we'll get it done and it'll be over with.
But too many times we just simply don't have a good attitude and positive thinking is one of the things that actually matters.
The other thing is that helps in your life and helps in leadership is humor can ease the tension.
And I'm not talking about the, you know, goofy, inappropriate, just, you know, not taking things seriously.
But I have found that when I give a lot of speeches and I talk to people all across the country, what I found in my remarks is that people, when I make a joke or I'm critical of myself or I say, you know, bring them to a point of maybe taking a situation and showing you how ridiculous it actually is and getting them to laugh, what I have found is, is the more you laugh, the more you learn.
And I've learned this lesson from teachers of leadership, but I've learned it more than anything else in my own life.
And I've learned by teaching that, and others who, when I've listened to and I've learned from, when they make it fun, when it is humorous, when there is something there that draws out laughter, that is the time that I actually learn more than I ever thought I would.
Why?
Because my defenses are down.
When you're laughing, you become much more at ease.
And when you're at ease, you're willing to accept new information.
You're willing to learn.
And many times you're willing to learn hard things that you may not have learned if somebody just sat up there and pointed at you and said, you've got to do these things.
Well, no, a humorous story.
Maybe you've got a team member who's just not able to get on the program.
Or maybe you're having a meeting and maybe the whole team has just spent a long month, a bad sales month, whatever it may be.
Well, sometimes when you've got to say, okay, we've got to change stuff, well, make it humorous.
Start with yourself.
Maybe there's something that you can just make fun of yourself, poke fun at yourself, not take yourself too seriously.
But when you get people laughing, then you can actually realize that you can see the tension level drop.
You can see people become more open.
And Ted Lasso's use of Injecting humor at the right time, at the right moment.
Now look, sometimes you're going to inject it and it's not the right time.
There's going to be some times that you make a joke and people are going to find it inappropriate.
But used at the right time, used in the right way, humor is something that you can grow your team in and grow yourself in.
Because laughing and learning go together.
And I think we see this in this show that Ted is able to teach by, at those moments, injecting humor as his lesson is going on.
That leads us to another issue that so far we have been talking about, you know, outward kind of things like being authentic.
Don't take it personal.
Tell the truth.
You know, have a positive attitude, you know, using humor to to relieve some tension.
But then the other thing is, and this is one in our society today is it's different than if I had taught this or talked about this, say, 10 years ago.
With the onset of COVID, with the onset of everything that we went through with pandemics and the lockdowns, the business is changing, the business model is changing, more people working from home, less people going in.
The world is just a different place than it was 10 years ago.
We have had to endure change whether we wanted to or not.
And one of the things that comes out of the Ted Lasso is that don't be afraid of change.
We need to see change as positive and try to find a solution that is better than what we had before.
Now that's not always easy.
None of us.
Truly.
There's very few.
This is probably one of those differences of the moderated bell curve or however you want to put it.
Most people do not like change.
There's only a few percentage that just loves what I'll call the change chaos.
They just love it.
They want to stay in constant change.
They're always moving.
They're always changing.
They're always, you know, adapting to new environments, new situations.
And that's great.
Then you have someone on the other end, which I think is actually bigger.
I think it's skewed more toward this end, who don't like change at all.
They eat the same breakfast every day.
They eat the same basic lunch every day.
They go to the same places every day.
They go to their wife.
You know, if they have a date night, they have a date night in the same place.
They have the kids.
And we get into ruts.
And the reality is, is that ruts will keep you in the same place.
That's really a rut.
For those of you who may not, you know, have grown up in the country like I did, when you get an old dirt road and people go on it over and over and it rains and then they drive down it again, you develop the ruts in the road.
The ruts will actually, if they get, I've been in them deep enough to where they, you wouldn't even have to turn to the steering wheel.
The actual, the vehicle will stay in a wagon, however you want a tractor, will just stay right in the ruts because they become so ingrained in our life that they're the things that keep us.
The ruts themselves, which have no other purpose than to say, this is where I've been over and over and over and over and over and over again, is the thing that keeps us in that place.
Change is not easy.
But change over the last few years has forced many of us out into new environments and new areas, including myself, doing this podcast, doing media, doing things that I had never thought about doing.
If you'd have told me a few years ago that I would be able to have a podcast, I'd do radio, I'd do media, I'd be able to go speak across the country, I'd be able to help people in consulting, that my life would be different than I was in public office, I would say, that sounds great, but that's change.
Change is not easy, but change is inevitable.
The alternative of change, in many ways, the clinical definition of death is no change.
In other words, you stay the same.
When you look at death, death means that you're not changing, you're not breathing, you're not taking a new breath, you're not thinking new things.
That is that you're in such a place in which no change happens.
Everything is now done.
And that is what many people get into.
I'm going to encourage you.
Find something in your life that you can experience change in.
Or accept the change around you.
Some of you have been fighting change so long that you don't even know why you're fighting it anymore.
Some of you've changed and adapted and you don't realize you've changed and adapted and you're still mad because you're not doing it the old way.
But change is inevitable in our lives.
And if we don't change, then you're never going to become that next manager, that next level.
And if you're starting out in life right now, if you're a teenager, maybe a young adult, 20, 30 year old, and you're wondering, you know, how do I grow and how do I make and become a better leader?
Change is going to be inevitable in your life and you have to change to grow up.
You can't change, you know, to grow, excuse me, to go up and not have some kind of change in your life.
You've got to have that change.
And that means you embrace it.
That means that you may not necessarily understand it or like it at times, but you've got to embrace change because it's all around us.
And Ted Lasso, I mean, going from American football to English Premier League football and all the situations around that, he had to learn to change.
I'm also going to bring up something that I believe sort of goes along with change, and that is belief.
And that's believing and acceptance and beliefs are who we are that keeps us alive.
They're the very things inside us.
Now, with all the things we've talked about from being authentic and taking personal change, laughter, humor...
We all have to have some beliefs, and this is what I find.
My one lesson out of this, a political lesson, is beliefs are those core things that don't move.
I am unashamedly pro-life.
You're not going to change me.
I'm not going to go to Congress, and I'm not going to go to state legislatures and change my view that life begins at conception, ends at natural death, and we're to take care of what God has given us in life.
I'm just not going to change on that.
That is a core conviction of who I am.
There's a core conviction on several things, but what I have found Is that there is beginning to be this idea in politics that everything is a core conviction.
Everything is a belief.
And that every hill is a hill to die on.
What you've got to learn to separate out is the beliefs that you sort of that hill to die on, the things that you're not going to change.
And then you've got to take all those other beliefs, maybe in limited government and scope of government, how we do budgets and how we think about the military and say, okay, what is the best that I can get?
You know, the old principle of it is I'll vote for the most right, in my perspective, the most right candidate I can find, not just literally on the right, but the right on the issues, but also right in belief in political makeup.
Now, that means that I may not agree with them every time, but I can find commonality in belief.
One, because I am so understanding of what my core convictions are that I don't have to worry about my core convictions changing so that I can take my convictions and I don't have to move them, but I can find ways that I can work with others.
Politics, this is becoming the lost and dying art.
People think, well, I've got to be 100% pure all the time.
You've got groups out there that'll rate you.
Were you 100% pure with us all the time?
That's not the way the world works.
It doesn't work anywhere else like that in the world.
And we're trying to impose ourselves in the political realm that way.
And it's going to be hard.
You've got to have people who are willing to have core beliefs.
Who know what they believe, a conservative outlook on life from my perspective, and then be able to work those conservative beliefs into the political atmosphere that you're in, or the business atmosphere you're in, or the family atmosphere you're in.
Again, we're not saying change your beliefs.
In fact, there's some core beliefs that will not change.
But if every belief is a hill to down, and you know people like this, I know people like this, and if you're the person listening to it who's saying that ain't true, then probably you're dying on every hill.
And you're going to get frustrated by it.
Beliefs are important, and you find your core beliefs, you find your core competence, you know what you believe, that is who you are, and then it affects how you operate to get things done.
I think this was the belief in ourselves, the belief in life, the belief in others that we can influence.
This comes back to being very, very important.
A couple more that I want to share with you this morning.
The first one sort of goes back to the never take things personally, and I think I could have probably included this one a little bit, but the attention span of a goldfish is something you need sometimes.
If you make a mistake, forget about it.
Let it fester for eight, ten minutes, ten seconds, whatever.
Or if you need to learn from that mistake, how can I do it better?
Then once you've learned from it, once you know you did wrong, then move on.
Too many of you are dwelling in the past.
You live with regret.
You live with disappointment.
You live with something you should have, could have, would have done.
And it's costing you everything in your life because you're miserable and you're always looking backwards.
Folks, When you see the past, you learn from it.
The old adage that the rearview mirror is much smaller than the windshield is perfect in analogy because you understand what's in the past, you see what's coming, you understand how to learn from it, but you've got to look forward in growing.
And sometimes that takes that you're just going to have to do things, make a mistake, and move right on.
Get right back up, do it again.
You know, the old movie, Rocky, Sylvester Stallone, in Rocky movies, you know, he talks about life is going to hit you harder than anything else that you've ever imagined, but it's not about, you know, the hit, it's about can you get up and keep moving forward.
And so my question to you today is, are you still living in the past with guilt and regret?
You gotta let it go.
Find you some help if you can't do it yourself.
Find you somebody to talk to, but you gotta let the past go.
You learn from it and move on.
If you're trapped in the past, you'll never have the future that you want.
But then the last one, and in just a minute I'm gonna actually play this clip.
From Ted Lasso, and it was a lesson that he taught while in a dart game with the owner and the owner's wife.
They're separated now, and this is sort of how he got over there.
And he makes a great point.
Ted makes the point of being curious.
Here, I want you to take just a few minutes here and listen to this exchange of Ted playing darts.
You know, Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life.
And for years, I never understood why.
It used to really bother me.
But then one day, I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman.
It was painted on the wall there.
It said, be curious, not judgmental.
I like that.
So I get back in my car, and I'm driving to work, and all of a sudden, it hits me.
All them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them were curious.
You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, and so they judged everything, and they judged everyone.
And I realized that their underestimating me...
who I was had nothing to do with it.
Because if they were curious, they would ask questions.
You know?
Questions like, have you played a lot of darts, Ted?
Which I would have answered, yes, sir.
Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age 10 to 16 when he passed away.
Barbecue sauce.
Barbecue sauce!
You see what I mean?
Sometimes in life, you just gotta ask questions.
You just gotta ask questions.
Be curious.
How many of you get up and do the same things every day?
You read the same newspapers every day.
You get the same opinions every day.
And you're not being curious.
Go out and ask questions.
When you're asking questions, you're learning.
When you're reading new things, you're learning.
When you're growing, you're learning.
And I think the greatest lesson of that dark game that you just listened to was the simple fact that Ted was underestimated.
I've been there before.
I've been underestimated.
Many of you think you've been underestimated.
Well, the question is, are you going to still stay out there and be underestimated?
Are you going to be curious?
Are you going to ask questions?
And are you then going to go out and overachieve?
That's the whole question.
Be curious in life.
Be yourself.
Make fun of yourself.
Have fun.
Inject humor.
You know, have a core set of beliefs.
Be honest.
Tell the truth.
All of these things matter.
And this is why we can have a time together here on the Doug Collins Podcast that we can take these truths and apply them to our lives.
I just wanted to share with you, we've got a lot that we talk about here on the podcast.
I always promised that this podcast was going to be more than just politics and things of state and world events and current events.
We're always going to have things that I hope will help you learn and grow.
This is my hope that will help you learn and grow.
Taking these lessons of Ted Lasso, taking lessons of life that I've learned, apply them in your life, grow your leadership.
Everybody can improve their leadership skills.
You just have to decide that you want to do that.
And I'm here to help you any way I can.
Go to thedougcollinspodcast.com.
There's an email button up here.
Please, if you have comments about this episode or any episode, please email me.
Let me know.
Maybe you have an idea for a future podcast.
Love to hear it.
Thedougcollinspodcast.com.
You can go there.
Send me a message on email.
Love to get your response.
Share this with whoever that you might have, and you will be a part.
Thanks for being a part of the Doug Collins Podcast today.
Hey everybody, I just want to talk about sleep.
You know why I want to talk about sleep?
It's because I just got out from underneath my MyPillow bed sheets and MyPillow that I keep under my head every night because I like to sleep on my side.
I like to sleep on my back.
I like to sleep, you know, I move at night and MyPillow is just the best thing that goes under my head.
It keeps me getting restful sleep.
The sheets are amazing.
It's just what you need.
Everybody understands you need seven hours of sleep.
Why not sleep in some of the best products out there?
And Mike and the folks at MyPillar are great folks to do this with.
And you can go to MyPillar.com or you can call them at 800-564-8475.
You'd code word Collins.
C-O-L-L-I-N-S. You won't want to miss this.
If you have not got these Giza...
Bed sheets.
You need them.
They're amazing.
They're soft.
They don't wear out.
You need those to get that sleep against your body at night and provide that cooling, just soothing nature that lets you get the most sleep.
But you know, they're not just about bed sheets and pillows.
They also have the MySlippers.
Amazing.
I've talked to you about it before.
I don't wear slippers, but I do wear my slippers.
They're amazingly comfortable.
You can wear them outside.
You can wear them inside.
Great products.
You've got towels.
You've got all kinds of stuff.
Go to MyPillow.com.
It's spring cleaning time.
It's spring time to get out there and try and buy new things.
Replace some of your old stuff.
You'll want to replace your towels.
Get some other products for your bedroom.
▲
Export Selection