In this episode, Ryan Goulart welcomes Think2Perform CEO, author, and self-described “philosophizer” Doug Lennick to explore the timeless concepts from Doug’s first book, Simple Genius (You)—and how the wisdom behind it still shapes leadership, happiness, and human connection today.
Doug shares foundational philosophies that he developed as early as age four and has applied for nearly seven decades. Through personal stories and practical metaphors, Doug reveals how self-awareness, values alignment, and relationship-building can guide us to live and lead with greater purpose.
The Genius is You
Doug begins by unpacking the meaning behind the title Simple Genius (You) a book not about the author’s genius, but the reader’s. He reflects on the universal desire to be happy and how the key to happiness is often found not in selfish pursuits, but in serving others and living in alignment with one’s deepest values.
Dishrag Theory: Inconsequential Interference
Doug introduces his first major metaphor: the Dishrag Theory. Originating from childhood kitchen squabbles with his sister, the theory explains how we often allow small, inconsequential disruptions to pull us off course. By recognizing a “dishrag” for what it is something that doesn’t materially affect our goal we can choose to ignore it and stay focused on what truly matters.
Water Basin Theory: The Power of Gratitude
The Water Basin Theory draws on Doug’s memory of hauling water as a boy. When others helped him and he expressed gratitude, he got more help. When he didn’t, he was left to struggle alone. The takeaway: gratitude is a powerful multiplier. Success, Doug argues, is rarely a solo endeavor, and acknowledging the contributions of others strengthens relationships and results.
Two Bridge Theory: Relationships That Work
Doug’s final metaphor is the Two Bridge Theory. In any meaningful relationship, both parties need to make an effort to connect. Rather than each building halfway and hoping to meet in the middle, Doug advocates for building a full bridge from your side—regardless of whether the other person meets you there. It’s about personal accountability and ensuring the relationship works, especially when it matters most.
Self-Awareness as the Starting Point
All three theories are grounded in one essential skill: self-awareness. Doug emphasizes the importance of observing our thoughts, emotions, and physical reactions to make better decisions. He introduces the Freeze Game, a simple daily practice to check in with yourself and ask: What am I thinking? How am I feeling? What am I doing? Could I do something better?
Happiness as the Reward
For Doug, happiness is not a byproduct of achievement it’s the actual reward. And the path to happiness lies in becoming the person you ideally want to be. By identifying core values and practicing behaviors that align with them, individuals can live more intentionally, feel more fulfilled, and positively impact others.
Values in Action: A Daily Practice
Doug shares his own practice for living his values: a memory trigger tied to water. Whether drinking it, washing hands, or brushing teeth, he uses each interaction as a chance to mentally recite his values and remind himself of how he wants to show up. This habit keeps his ideals top of mind and helps close the gap between intention and action.
Transcript
Ryan Goulart (02:30.92)
I have with me today Doug Lenick, CEO of Think2Perform, Philosophizer. Doug, welcome. Yeah, you know, we’re just trying some new stuff here today. What we’re going to talk about are a couple of things that relate to thoughts, writings.
Ryan (02:40.27)
I like that. That’s a new twist.
Ryan (02:47.072)
I like philosophizing. So let’s do it.
Ryan Goulart (03:00.454)
and information that you’ve taught thousands of people. And so for many of you, this will be new content, which is phenomenal. For those of you that haven’t heard this in a while, this is going to be a blast from the past. So to start with, one of the things that this is all derived from is Doug’s very first book, Simple Genius, Parentheses You.
Ryan (03:16.426)
Ha ha ha!
Ryan Goulart (03:30.132)
So Doug, just as a introduction to your early thinking, how would you summarize your first novel?
Ryan (03:42.033)
Well, was, first of all, the simple genius you, the concept of parentheses you and of parentheses is the reader is the genius, not the author. And what I was figuring out at that time in my life, and I had never been older, in fact, you know, even now I have never been older than I am, but at that time,
Ryan (04:10.516)
I had never been older then, too. And I was starting to figure out that what I really wanted out of life was to be happy. And that if I could figure that out, that would be a genius kind of activity, just figuring that out. And so now what’s interesting is over the years now that
Ryan (04:38.912)
we have Think To Perform and we do this values study, we actually know that all over the world, I wasn’t that weird. People either are happy or they want to be. So it’s one of the, it’s the third most valued value in the world. Family, health, happiness are your top three. And I was this young guy who figured out.
Ryan (05:07.244)
The real game here is to like your life. And so the genius is the reader. And that’s it.
Ryan Goulart (05:18.196)
Yeah. So as you were contemplating those happy thoughts about happiness, what, where did you first encounter or experience and evolve the thought, this theories, these theories that we’re going to introduce our audience to.
Ryan (05:40.256)
Well,
Ryan (05:42.427)
interestingly, much of what is written about in The Simple Genius, really, my son Alan was born in 1976 and a lot of what I was doing, was rewriting at that time. really got serious about thinking, okay, I’m now beginning a book. I decided that in 1977.
Ryan (06:07.604)
At that time, that was the year I turned 25, but I was reflecting back on things that I thought I was learning in life. so I can remember distinctly the things in the Simple Genius were things I was learning between primarily ages four and six were a number of the big breakthroughs. And then I just experienced how true they
Ryan (06:37.422)
were and having never been older I declared this must be so. But then I didn’t want to publish the book until it lasted longer so I thought I want to write a book that’s timeless. I want a timeless book. And so I thought I gotta wait till I’m 30 because 30 is old. You know that’s what I thought at the time. In fact at that time young people said you can’t trust anybody over 30.
Ryan (07:03.842)
So I thought, well, if I can get to that non-trustworthy age and still have something that’s worthwhile, I’ll publish it. And that’s how it came up. But that’s where the concepts came. lot of them, so you look at the, well, specifically the dishrag theory and the water basin theory. The two bridge theory I added later, I was a little older.
Ryan (07:30.264)
But by the two bridge theory, I figured out that that’s probably maybe teenagers, something like that. But a lot of those kind of things, and I’m not sure if the three pot theory is in there. Is it three bucket theory? I call it one might not be in there, but so could have been. But the current simple genius would add that. The you reader would want that in there. But that’s how it started.
Ryan Goulart (07:44.563)
No.
Ryan Goulart (07:54.454)
Yeah, so
Ryan Goulart (07:55.514)
let’s start with the Dishrag Theory. I mean, these theories that you experience through life that have real world application to all of the things that we do here just 40, nearly 50 years later. which is pretty remarkable.
Ryan (08:10.124)
Yes, yes, yes, What I,
Ryan (08:15.776)
well, I’m very, you know, back to being a philosophizer, as you said, but you know, being really, mostly I am self-proclaimed. guess anybody can say whatever they want. And I’ve been a philosopher all my life and I’ve basically developed some philosophies and lived by them and then found
Ryan (08:40.492)
their applications in real life as it relates to this universal pursuit of happiness. I mean, so every other book that I’ve written really just builds off of the notion that…
Ryan (08:55.854)
I want to have, everybody wants to be happy and have a good life and we’re humans and we’ve got challenges. And so we need ways to deal with those challenges. And I learned that as a little boy. So the dishwrag theory occurred in the.
Ryan (09:12.362)
in the kitchen of our home in Hebron, North Dakota. And I’m sitting here in front of a piece of art that was given to me. You don’t get to see it, but on the other side of that it says Hebron General Store. But some people commissioned an artist to do this for me. These were people that I worked with in Minneapolis as a district manager. at one point they gave me this wonderful gift. And so that’s the General Store.
Ryan (09:42.228)
I’m living there. we had, in our home at the time, we had an indoor toilet. But the kitchen did not have indoor running water. But the bathroom did. Now, about half of the town didn’t have it that good.
Ryan (10:12.238)
They had an outhouse literally that they used 12 months a year and it gets chilly in Hebron, North Dakota. I will assure you. So we had this indoor thing, which was great, but I would get water outside. That’s where the water basin come in and then we’d heat it up, do the dishes. My sister’s three years older than me. We had an assignment and my mom was very clear.
Ryan Goulart (10:12.629)
You
Ryan (10:42.242)
that we would complete the assignment. And the assignment was do the dishes. So, and I got to be part of doing the dishes when I was four. And my job usually was to dry the dishes, but sometimes I’d wash. I don’t remember when that happened. Nonetheless, my sister who was washing the dishes always had a wet dish rag in her hands. And on occasion, for whatever the reason, she would
Ryan (11:11.478)
throw it at me. And it would, you know, sometimes hit me right in the face. And even as a four year old, that was disappointing. You would think, well, wouldn’t that fun? No, it was not fun. She wasn’t doing it to be fun. Would have been fun if I did it. Having it done to me was not fun. And so what I would then do initially
Ryan Goulart (11:31.797)
Heh
Ryan (11:40.246)
was I would throw the dishrag back. And that turned out to not end it. Because in my little mind, my little four-year-old mind, I’ll just throw this back and we’re done. Let’s get done with the dishes. Now, she wasn’t interested in being even. She was my big sister. So she threw it back. Now, this would go on for a little while.
Ryan (12:05.614)
And sometimes my mom would enter the kitchen and sometimes she wouldn’t. It didn’t matter because we had to do the dishes and the kitchen had to be clean when we were done. And the dish rag fight wasn’t useful. And so I started to realize dish rags are inconsequential interference. And so if I were to tell that story today, it’s like I’m sitting here now, my office door is over here to my left.
Ryan (12:30.73)
If on my way to the door, I have a goal, I gotta get out the door in order to get on with my day. But on my way to the door, I get hit by a dishrag. Now a dishrag is defined as inconsequential interference. It’s not material. There are material interferences we deal with differently. But a dishrag is inconsequential. It doesn’t change the goal.
Ryan (12:57.944)
Dealing with it doesn’t help in any way. It just slows it down. But it puts us into a decision. So I’m now faced with a decision. Do I want to forget going to the door and just say, heck now, we’re into a fight and I have a new goal and that’s to win this fight. So I no longer even want to go to where I thought I wanted to go. Nah, that’s not right.
Ryan (13:20.974)
So I could go option two, well how about we get even. I’ll just throw the dishrag back, we get even, then I’ll head to the door. So I throw it back, I start moving to the door, you throw me another dishrag. Dang, same decision. At some point, I either give up the door or give up the dishrag.
Ryan (13:41.358)
And if I really need to get out the door, unless I want to live the rest of my life in this room, I got to get out the door. So the sooner I treat that dishrag as it is, which is nothing, I ignore the dishrag. That’s how it should be treated. It deserves to be ignored.
Ryan (14:06.348)
Now don’t tell my sister, she’s still three years older than me. But I’ve become the big brother. But that’s the dish right theory. But what preceded that, you know, if you get into the, you know, is the water basin. Cause in order to do the dishes, I had to bring in the water. So they allowed me to start bringing in the water also in that four to six range. And I would bring in the water in this basin. I’d go outside and pump in a cistern and it would pump water up. And water is heavy.
Ryan (14:36.462)
And it was in this little basin. It literally was in a basin. No, it wasn’t. It was in a bucket that I poured it into a basin. And sometimes, sometimes people would help me. And I learned early on that was really helpful. And I would be thankful. And when I was thankful, then they would help me again. Specifically, that they was my sister. When I wasn’t thankful,
Ryan (15:06.846)
She was less helpful. And she allowed me to carry the basin in all by myself. You go ahead, Doug.
Ryan (15:17.496)
So I learned.
Ryan (15:20.364)
I’m not accomplishing anything on my own. If I could maybe gratitude will go a long way. I learned that when I was a little boy. So the water basin theory simply says a lot of people are putting water into the basin, my basin. They’re helping me fill my basin. And if I’m at least half aware, I will know they’re helping.
Ryan (15:50.09)
And if I’m at least half a person, I will want to be grateful and I will express that. If I lack self-awareness, of course that’s a problem. But I learned to be grateful and I got help. so those two theories worked really hand in hand. And by the time I was six years old, those became operating principles for my life. They still are. And I’m going to be 73.
Ryan (16:20.288)
That’s almost 70 years of this one thing and I’m beginning to believe it.
Ryan (16:26.766)
I think that philosophy is holding up, is my point. Yeah, philosophy is standing up.
Ryan Goulart (16:29.534)
So as you…
Ryan Goulart (16:32.178)
Yeah. Well, and
Ryan Goulart (16:36.169)
it connects a lot to a lot of the things that we have talked about here on making the ideal real and also through the various things that we do here at Think To Perform. One of the things that, you know, let’s focus attention quickly on
Ryan Goulart (16:54.29)
Dishrag first and then we’ll kind of walk through various questions that I have for each each theory and ultimately we’ll come back to the two bridge theory because I think it’s an important one for what we’re how we’re talking about growth. When it comes to Dishrag and its inconsequential interference can that interference is it always someone else?
Ryan Goulart (17:23.268)
Or is it also me?
Ryan (17:27.468)
Could be me, yeah, could be me easily, could be me. And the thing about all of this is it requires judgment, it requires some wisdom, and that’s difficult. It requires some self-awareness. And we often say, the great of course is people who lack self-awareness of course don’t know.
Ryan (17:55.15)
So you have to have the wisdom to be able to pay attention to yourself enough and to have enough integrity with yourself. And that’s very hard. It’s very hard to do. And one of my early teachers, it was my, when I got into the financial services industry, I was 21 years old when I started.
Ryan (18:22.452)
I did not have a college degree. My boss’s boss was a guy from West Texas. His name was Tom Turner. And one of the things he shared with me many, many times over the years, because I was a district manager for him and we had great success working together with the people that we worked with. But he said to me, Doug, keep in mind that people will doubt and fear.
Ryan (18:50.85)
that which they do not understand, and they will defend and protect that which they think they understand. And I said the word think the way I said it, because thinking I understand and understanding are not necessarily the same thing. And so I have to be able to discern whether or not
Ryan (19:17.9)
that discernment capability, is this consequential or not? That requires judgment. And what I find, and you know, I’m into this values-based decision, this isn’t in the Symbol Genius specifically, but it’s always been part and parcel to how I think about it. And to me, one of my most important values is wisdom, and I used wisdom
Ryan (19:46.752)
It’s not in our deck for any of you that go to the deck, you won’t find it. It’s a write-in. It’s not on the online exercise that you won’t find it. It’s a write-in. I wrote it in because wisdom represents to me kind of my understanding of my life before life, life after life. It’s my spiritualness and it takes into consideration my mind and my body and what the heck is going on, my spirit.
Ryan (20:16.724)
And so all of that is kind of in the game. And I need the wisdom, and the wisdom sorts out good and evil. I believe it’s wise to be knowledgeable, but knowledge doesn’t sort out good and evil. Wisdom does. And so to me, the simple genius needs wisdom. Gotta have wisdom in order to play the games. But, you know, so that can be challenging.
Ryan Goulart (20:42.931)
Well…
Ryan Goulart (20:46.267)
It’s an interesting thought too, mean, at least in how you’re framing it now and you’re thinking at the time of Simple Genius where…
Ryan Goulart (20:57.765)
a lot of your pursuit to the door was related to the achievement of the goal. But what you’re saying here is that on occasion, paying attention to the inconsequential interference is important because that might give you wisdom or opportunity to reframe what you’re looking for.
Ryan (21:05.728)
Yes.
Ryan (21:20.374)
Yeah, well,
Ryan (21:24.156)
times it’s not inconsequential is what I’m saying. The dishrag, what you might think is a dishrag could be consequential is what I’m saying. by definition, it’s a dishrag when it’s inconsequential.
Ryan Goulart (21:37.075)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan Goulart (21:47.613)
Got it. Okay.
Ryan (21:48.322)
But
Ryan (21:49.263)
being able to determine that is hard. But there are ways in which you can play that out too. But that’s the deal. But I believe, and I was experiencing this as a kid, and now we have science that suggests that…
Ryan (22:12.364)
My experiences were real. They’re science that says this. But we established our value system pretty early. Some of our more core values are established really early on. And so this notion that we’re part of a humanity and that we have a role to play and that we’re supposed to make a contribution, we’re not here as takers. We’re here to participate.
Ryan (22:40.494)
And that’s what the simple genius figured out. The simple genius you is happy because he’s figured out, he or she’s figured out that I am happiest when I’m doing something for someone other than myself. Selfishly, selfishly I want to be happy. I get that, that’s selfish. But guess what? I don’t get to be happy doing selfish things.
Ryan (23:10.442)
Selfish behavior has never paid off for me. I may have gotten what I wanted. I might have gotten the ink pen, but I don’t feel good about it. And I wanted to be happy. That’s the genius. The simple genius is the guy who figured out to be happy. The selfish guy is not happy. You know, so I figure out, rule that out. You know, my selfish behavior never works.
Ryan (23:37.026)
when it comes to happiness. It only works when it comes to goal achievement. So I can achieve some goal selfishly, but I escape the reward. I miss the reward, the happiness. It’s not the goal, it’s the journey. And the journey will be a happy one if I do it well, if I play the games well, if I do the water basin and I say thank you.
Ryan (24:07.31)
And I recognize that once in a while I’m going to get hit by something that doesn’t matter and I just have to ignore it and move on. It’s in the best interest of everybody. And then sometimes I get hit by something that does matter and then it’s in the best interest for everybody, for me then to deal with it. But I’m not here just for me. I am part of a humanity. That’s why we are born to be lingual. We’re supposed to talk to somebody.
Ryan (24:35.872)
somebody else who can understand.
Ryan Goulart (24:38.642)
Well, and it relates
Ryan Goulart (24:39.362)
to your other theory, the two bridge theory. So walk us through what that means as it relates to that need for human connection.
Ryan (24:42.53)
Yes.
Ryan (24:50.656)
Well, and as you well know, one of our mutual friends and colleagues at the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence and Organizations, amazing name, when I can say all of that, Vanessa Druscott, does research on the biological need to belong.
Ryan (25:09.964)
Humans have a need to belong and I won’t get into all the biology, but I knew that as just a human without having any research behind it. And so we want to belong and we have relationships in our lives. And one of the things that happens is in those relationships, people have to put something into it. So you get married.
Ryan (25:39.314)
or you have a working relationship, you and I have a relationship, and very frequently what people think about in relationships of any kind is that I want to contribute to this being a productive relationship. And because I care so much about this relationship, I am willing and I will go more than halfway. So you don’t even have to go…
Ryan (26:07.37)
all the way. I’m going to go more than halfway. Now, what if you’re saying the same thing? You’re willing to go more than halfway. And now someone, independent party comes in and confidentially interviews us privately and says, hey, Ryan, in your relationship with Doug, mean, do you think you at least give it half? You know, that you’re really trying to make that work?
Ryan (26:35.956)
yeah, I I really want that to be productive and I’m absolutely, I do at least half. Same person asked me the question, I do at least half. Well how is it that we disconnect then? Well I would argue we’re building two bridges. We are two different people. We come from therefore two different sides of the river. And if you start building your bridge,
Ryan (27:01.868)
and I start building my bridge and we intend to do a meet in the middle thing, that’s going to take a feat of engineering that we didn’t plan for. And we will not touch. So the concept is, if I have a desire or a need for a productive relationship with anybody, even somebody I don’t like,
Ryan (27:29.09)
but I need the relationship to work. It’s in my interest to build a bridge all the way from me to you. That’s one bridge. The other bridge is for you to build one to me. Now your interest might not be to build an entire bridge. You might only be willing to go halfway. I’m okay with that.
Ryan (27:57.27)
because I need the relationship to work. We’ll use your half and we’ll use my whole when yours doesn’t work. And when yours is in total disrepair, we’ll just use mine.
Ryan (28:13.642)
And when I don’t want the relationship anymore, I’m taking my bridge away.
Ryan (28:21.784)
There will be no bridge. There will be no relationship. There will be nothing. But as long as we have a relationship, it’s a two bridge. I am attempting a two bridge. I will, as long as the relationship is in my interest, it’s in my interest therefore to make it work. I owe it to me.
Ryan (28:46.336)
And so I’m going to try to make it work. I’m going to try to make it work, Brian. That’s the deal, even if you don’t want to. But does that make sense by the way?
Ryan Goulart (28:54.48)
Okay, Doug. Well, when you… Yeah, it makes absolutely sense.
Ryan Goulart (29:02.521)
the question that, you know, whether you’re a leader of an organization, or you’re in sales, I mean, there’s a… Or you’re trying to influence and connect with a peer or direct report.
Ryan Goulart (29:18.673)
You know, there’s so many opportunities to do what you just articulated. And the question that was floating around in my mind, which I don’t know if it’s someone that you answer as both a connector and a bridge builder, but the question of like, what’s in it for me? You know, people operate with that in their head as like, what’s in it for me to get a relationship with you.
Ryan Goulart (29:43.213)
But they’re not always perceiving the what’s in it for you to have a relationship with me. Do those questions play a role in the two bridge theory?
Ryan (29:50.754)
Yeah.
Ryan (29:55.918)
Well, that’s an interesting one. would say, you know…
Ryan (30:02.818)
I would say you would be able to maybe add value to the relationship by exposing that thinking and helping people understand that. I was at a dinner the other day with a client and someone and the party we were with was wanting
Ryan (30:30.252)
that might our clients to do something and I was saying well you know we all have to get to where we understand what’s in it for each party you know so and if if we if we have win-win because the ultimate borrowing from Stephen Covey if we can create win-win solutions we should and and and we should and if we can’t we should not play he’s right if it can’t be win-win don’t play and so
Ryan (30:59.212)
The two bridge theory says, even though you might not know it, when my bridge is working or when your bridge is working, when the relationship is at least functional, both of us are benefiting.
Ryan (31:16.322)
both of us are benefiting. It’s possible that at one time or another one of us can’t see that.
Ryan (31:25.674)
And that’s usually because we’re looking through our emotional eyes and our emotional eyes can sometimes deceive us. When you look through rose-colored glasses, you see rose colors. When you look through angered colored glasses, you see anger.
Ryan (31:46.934)
and everything you see makes you angry.
Ryan Goulart (31:51.781)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense too. And it’s also…
Ryan (31:51.94)
You
Ryan (31:56.258)
So where one
Ryan (31:56.978)
comes from, and that’s why it’s really important to get back to the self-awareness. And that’s why the Simple Genius, when I first wrote that book, I wasn’t yet at a point where I was able to say, I’ve got to get better at paying attention to myself. I did in those moments, but I had to get better and make it a more permanent kind of thing. And I had to start understanding more clearly.
Ryan (32:26.23)
What is my reality? And then I started to experience cognition and emotion and physicality and then mind, body, spirit and all that stuff. And then that’s all been playing in my head all these 70 years. And then what happens is you just add to it and get depth.
Ryan Goulart (32:46.118)
So.
Ryan Goulart (32:50.051)
Yeah, well, you know, as you kind of think about, what would you, as someone who’s listening to this right now and is looking to apply any one of these theories to their own life, where would you encourage or advise them to start?
Ryan (33:10.646)
Well, I would start with two things, actually. I would go with two things. First of all, one of the things that I’ve already articulated is, and it’s theoretically possible that there are some people that don’t care if they’re happy or not, but I would say, you know, our data would suggest the bulk of our people want to be happy.
Ryan (33:37.43)
And so if we can accept that, that that’s the victory, it’s the happiness that’s the victory. And what we know in our narrative, we actually know that the reward happiness comes from doing these other things that are more selfless, if you will. And so the system teaches itself and it rewards itself.
Ryan (34:06.68)
So we actually learn from our experiences that as I practice, I get better. So what I would do is I would focus on learning to pay attention to myself and make it a habit. And to do that, I would practice what we call the freeze game. The freeze game is a reality check and
Ryan (34:31.63)
And the way the brain works, and you can speak to this with your neuroscience background, the way the brain works is practice makes permanent. And so what we repeatedly think or do gets wired into the habit center of our brain. And that’s the big deal. And so we want to make paying attention to ourselves a habit because self-awareness is the foundation to everything.
Ryan (34:59.906)
So out of self-awareness, I can make better decisions. So I play this freeze game, and all the game is we hit the pause button, and in the pause, we just ask ourselves, what am I thinking right now? That’s the cognitive part. Emotionally, how am I feeling right now? That’s the emotional part. And physically, what’s happening with me right now, both voluntary and involuntary? What’s my physical experience?
Ryan (35:29.068)
That’s the freeze game. And then the bonus question is, could I be thinking or doing something different that would be better for me? I don’t get to decide how I feel emotionally. I do get to decide what I think. I do get to decide what I do. And when I get really good at that, I influence my feelings.
Ryan (35:55.872)
and I can actually become happy by thinking and doing things that make me happy. So I would practice the freeze game so that I could then answer that second question or the last fourth question, could I be thinking or doing something better? Second thing is I would get in touch with who I am ideally. What does better mean? What…
Ryan (36:24.854)
What will make me happy? Well, what will make me happy is actually being the person I would ideally like to be. That would make me happy. Why don’t I just be him? I don’t know, but because I’m an emotional wreck half the time, I think that’s part of it.
Ryan (36:47.008)
And so it’s hard sometimes to be really nice when I’m angry. And it’s hard for me not to run away when I’m scared. And stuff like that. mean, I’m struggling. So I would say get in touch with what you care most about, your values. Understand your deepest held values.
Ryan (37:13.856)
We make values-based decisions all the time. Sometimes we’re using our deepest held values. Sometimes we’re using impulse. In the moment I value this, I’m gonna take it. Well, that’s not yours. Well, I want it. I’m gonna take it. Well, you just stole something from somebody else. Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about my integrity. I was thinking about I wanted that ink pen.
Ryan (37:41.398)
And it was just sitting there and it didn’t look like anybody’s. It looked like a really nice pen and it is. And so I took it and there. And so I would get in touch. You can do the values exercise. Any of our viewers, listeners, however one consumes this podcast, anybody can go right now to thinktoperform.com. Do the values exercise for free.
Ryan (38:11.336)
and come through a process that will help you think about what matters most. And in that process of funneling down from, care about a lot of stuff, to there are a few things that I care really a lot about. And ideally, I would like those things to anchor my decisions and my behavior. So do the values exercise and then
Ryan (38:38.466)
Do something that helps you put those values to action. I use memory triggers now. And I, by the way, living in alignment with all this is not a lifetime achievement. I’m human. I mess up a lot. And you can ask my family. But I use water as a trigger. This is a now currently empty bottle of water.
Ryan (39:05.09)
But if I were drinking this water, which I would like, I’m thirsty right now, so I’m going to pretend, which it is not, that this Diet Coke is water. And you’ll notice it’s a pretend because of what I do at the very end of pretending it’s water. OK, here we go. Ready?
Ryan (39:29.358)
It did taste good, it wet my whistle.
Ryan (39:35.39)
And I say to myself and now to all of our listeners and viewers, I went through this routine while I drank that diet coke in this case. Not good for me, but you’ll see why that matters in a moment. I want to put my values to action. I have my values are family, happiness, wisdom, integrity, service and health.
Ryan (40:01.998)
By the way, for those of you that do the game, it’ll take you down to five, but if you want a six-one, go ahead, but then come up with some way in which you convert that to actionable memory. And so what I do, very simply, is while I’m drinking water, washing my hands, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, I interact with water every day at least 20 times, at least 20 times.
Ryan (40:30.816)
So no less than 20 times a day, what I do is I go through this. Love your family. I don’t have to go anywhere to love my family. I can do it right here. Be happy. I can do that right here too. Seek wisdom. Behave with integrity. Do something of service for somebody else today, please. And make healthy choices.
Ryan (40:58.57)
And then water, which represents to me a healthy choice, I set down that water and I smile to myself. And I look at that little water bottle and I say to myself, you made one just now, a healthy choice. So the idea is put your verbs to work. Values based decision making. And what we really are committed to, I think, to perform
Ryan (41:26.9)
is helping the world understand what we are beginning to see. We get to see it every day. People all over the world share similar values, but we have significantly dissimilar resources. And what we do with that is really important. So those who have praiseworthy values, who happen to be the vast majority of the population of the globe.
Ryan (41:56.802)
those people who have praiseworthy values and also have some resources to help out, let’s put it to work.
Ryan Goulart (42:06.143)
Awesome. Well thank you so much Doug for coming on.
