Claim OwnershipBeyond the Crucible
Subscribed: 9,783Played: 47,694
Subscribe
© (c) 2022 Crucible Leadership
Description
You are more than your failures and setbacks. We share stories of leaders who have moved beyond life’s most difficult moments to lead lives of significance, and insights on how you can do the same. Hosted by Warwick Fairfax.
212 Episodes
Reverse
Life can be better. That’s the cry of the heart and the hope of the spirit for those who take our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and get as their result the profile of On A Different Track, the subject we discuss this week on the latest episode of our spring series. Those who find themselves On A Different Track make up the 28 percent of people who have taken the assessment who don’t believe they’ve had a crucible that has changed the trajectory of their life. But as we unpack here, when they reflect at a deeper level on their lives, they realize there is a gnawing sense of “Is this all there is?” They may look happy and successful on the outside, but there remains some inner turmoil they haven’t dealt with that’s keeping them from achieving their unique life of significance. But here’s the good news: as we explore here, just taking a small step in the direction of what truly brings you joy, even if you’ve never dared to do more than dream about it, can move you beyond “Is this all there is?” to “This is all I’ve ever wanted.” To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
A really hopeful place to be. Maybe you’ll be surprised to learn that the profile from our Trials to Triumphs Self-Assessment we’re describing is the one we call Afraid to Trip. What’s hopeful about that? You’ll learn the answer to that question in this week’s episode as we discuss how those who receive this result are closer to living their life of significance than they likely realize. They’ve processed their crucible, they have a vision they’d like to pursue … but they’re wrestling with emotions that are keeping them from moving forward. But if they tap into the safety, encouragement and support that can come from others and from shifting their self-talk and the worries and fears that guide it, the obstacles they’re worried about stumbling over can change from virtual boulders that seem insurmountable into pebbles they can’t even see. To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
Not filling your bucket but draining it. That’s what it can feel like if you find yourself living the profile of Running in Place from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment. This week, in our fourth episode of our spring series unpacking what your assessment results can teach you about where you are on your journey of moving beyond your crucible, we examine this unique situation in which you find yourself with a vision in your mind you can’t seem to get started pursuing. The good news is, we also offer you insight and action steps on how you can get off the treadmill – move past living in the gray and feeling like “OK” is about the best you’ll ever feel – and start truly moving forward to a full-technicolor life of significance. To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
Not able to get ahead. That feeling is one of the hallmarks of being Stuck at the Starting Line, the profile from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment we discuss on today’s show. But fear not: While feeling stuck after a crucible is normal, it does not have to be forever. In this third episode of our series delving into our statistically valid self-assessment, we not only explain what it looks and feels like to be stuck at the starting line, but how to get yourself unstuck. A critical aspect of breaking free is mustering the wherewithal to make a mindset shift that allows you to see your crucible not as something that happened to you, but something that happened for you. And then, with that perspective in hand, setting a course for your unique vision for a life of significance. To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
Living as your best self. Pursuing your vision. Fulfilled by your life of significance. If so, we’ve got good news for you. Just keep listening. Does that sound like a place in which you’d like to stand? This week, in the second episode of our spring series exploring our Trials-to-Triumphs self-assessment, we begin examining the assessment’s unique profiles by starting with the end in mind. So the first one we unpack here is Hitting Your Stride. But listen closely. Even if you are Hitting Your Stride, there is still more to do and crucibles have a habit of appearing when you least expect it. It’s our way of casting a vision for the goal of the race we’re all running as we look to bounce forward from our crucible experiences. No matter where your “you are here” mark falls on the map, you can get to Hitting Your Stride. Stick with us … and we’ll help you get there. To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment and discover your own "you are here" mark on your roadmap to a life of significance, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
Could we really prove it? The stages and the process we go through – each of us individually – after we’ve been through a crucible … and then chart our way beyond it? The answer? Absolutely. As you’re about to discover in our spring series that begins this week on how we built and how you can benefit from our Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment. In this first episode of our eight part series, we’ll explain how and why we created a statistically valid survey and the surprising – sometimes shocking, even – things it told us about how we experience crucibles and chart our own unique course to a life of significance after them. So get ready: You’re about to better understand how your setbacks and failures have affected you … and how you can move on from those trials to experience life-changing triumphs. To take the Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment, visit www.crucibleleadership.com. You'll get your results immediately and be able to better dig into your unique results as our series unfolds.
Someone you admire. Someone who knows more than you about your job or about the lifestyle you want to live. Someone who shares your values. People like that are the ones you should be on the lookout for in selecting a mentor. On this week’s episode, we discuss Warwick's latest blog at BeyondTheCrucible.com, titled “How To Find the Right Mentor.” Among the seven tips he offers to assist us in securing a helpful mentor are to make sure we’re ready for one, find one who will make us do the work rather than do it for us and be on the lookout for someone who is a great listener and asks great questions. “Mentors are there to assist us and help us," he says. "Not to fix us." To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Lion Goodman recounts his harrowing experience of being shot twice (two other bullets narrowly missed him) by a man whose car broke down in the middle of the Mojave Desert to whom he was being a good Samaritan – and the hours of discussion that he engaged in with his attacker, finally, miraculously convincing the gunman to let him go. The incident, he tells Warwick, set him on the path to becoming a coach helping clients eliminate negative and limiting beliefs, resolve childhood wounds and delete traumatic memories at their source. Today he’s CEO of the Clear Beliefs Institute, dedicated to awakening, healing, and enlightening humanity so we can get on with the job of being fully human, working in collaboration to create a world that works for everyone. To learn more about Lion Goodman and his work, visit www.liongoodman.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
The horrors our guest this week, Amanda Blackwood, endured almost from birth are hard to hear. Decades of physical, emotional and sexual abuse … but heartache was not the end of her story. Healing was. Our interview with Blackwood, by necessity, covers the traumas she experienced being sex-trafficked on more than one occasion. But make no mistake about it: Amanda Blackwood may have been victimized, but she has emerged as anything but a victim. She fought for freedom from the demons of her past, assisted by therapy and her faith, to emerge as an author, artist and public speaker who offers hope to women who’ve been wounded by the same devastating crucibles. “The first time I got up on a stage I had a speaking voice like a mouse,” she says. “But I found there was a lion in my lungs.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Character. Discipline. Overcoming a natural weakness like impatience. These are critical characteristics for leaders, and for bouncing back from a crucible, and we explore this week how George Washington modeled them. It’s our focus on this fifth episode of our series within the show, STORIES FROM THE BOOK CRUCIBLE LEADERSHIP. Warwick discusses his appreciation of and respect for Washington as a man of inviolable character who walked away from power after winning the American Revolution even when many clamored for him to keep it as long as he wanted it and America needed it. He also examines Washington's rare gift for listening, not just hearing but heeding his advisors at a key point in the war when he wanted his army to attack the British but those who counseled him urged restraint. The advisors proved right, and Washington proved his greatness. It's a greatness we all can lean into by modeling America’s founding father, Warwick says, even though our vision will almost certainly be different than winning a nation its independence. To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
This week, we commemorate our 200th episode by revisiting three moments from past shows that moved Warwick and have shaped the kind of podcast we have now. You’ll discover how crucibles can often be vastly different in details but so similar to be almost identical in emotion; the power of being able to find gratitude in your traumas and tragedies; and how mindset and perseverance can be your superpowers in turning what’s been broken into breakthrough. The basic truth we aim to unpack here? As Warwick says: "We can learn something not just from everybody’s crucibles, but from how they navigate their journey back." To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
This week, we discuss Warwick's latest blog, “Seven Ways to Live By Your Passions, Not Others’ Expectations.” In the piece, and on this episode, he unpacks key building blocks to develop and deploy a vision for a life of significance that you, not your friends or family, are uniquely off-the-charts passionate about. What's a stake if we pursue what pleases others, not what ignites our spirits? Warwick says it can be "soul-destroying." Not just hard. Not just unfulfilling. Not just feeling trapped. But having your dreams and passions, the essence of who we are, obliterated. The bookend exhortations we discuss are “Remember, it’s your life!” and “Do something!” In between, you’ll discover what you need to know -- and do – to avoid living, as Warwick puts it, “A dreary black and white life of obligation and people pleasing.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance asseo2ssment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Brad Jeffery was visiting a Kenyan slum on a business trip focused on finding ways to financially help those who lived there when he found himself asking questions about what it would really take to help the impoverished, endangered women he talked with. Just giving them money, he determined, would not solve their dire situation. So he founded Made Free, an apparel accessories brand that competes on the world stage in design and quality while serving as a vehicle for consumers to help create sustainable change through dignified work and livable wages. Every purchase supports a day of freedom from human trafficking and poverty … and moves Jeffery further beyond his crucible of feeling that his life – running a successful family business founded by his great-grandfather – lacked the significance to leave a legacy that truly helped others. To learn more about Made Free, visit www.madefree.co To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com
Trusting ourselves and our vision, especially when naysayers offer all sorts of reasons designed to dissuade us from pursuing it, is a necessity in our journey to a life of significance. This week, in the latest episode of our series within the show, Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership, we discuss how Walt Disney did just that, not letting the doubts of others or the crucibles he encountered stop him from pursuing his dreams. Disney refused to let his vision get derailed – and it resulted in seismic changes in entertainment and culture across the globe. From bouncing forward after being swindled out of his first comic creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, to envisioning a family-friendly theme park at a time when such places were seedy and suspect – leading to the creation of Disneyland – Walt Disney was, as Warwick says, never one to give up. That’s why we’d all do well to summon the same determination in bringing our own visions to reality. To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Turning tragedy into triumph. You’ve heard us use those words scores of times, because we know, from experience, that it’s not only possible to turn what’s broken into breakthrough – but that brokenness is often a key ingredient of the breakthrough. This week's guest, Tyler Sexton, has cerebral palsy, a condition that has forced him to endure 18 surgeries and decades of insults and being regarded as incapable of doing much with his life. Well, Dr. Tyler Sexton has proven the taunters and doubters wrong. He's become a pediatrician who can connect with the children he treats because of his crucibles – using his skills and experience to not just treat their bodies, but to plant hope in their spirits. The philosophy he’s lived by and encourages others to adopt is rooted in what he’s discovered is a life-changing truth: “There’s always something to be thankful for.” To learn more about Tyler Sexton and his book, No Such Thing As Can't, visit www.tylersexton.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Original air date: June 20, 2023 Janine Shepherd was on track to represent her home nation of Australia in the Olympics as a cross-country skier – but then her dream, quite literally, crashed when she was hit by a utility truck while on a bicycle training exercise with her teammates. She came out the other side of that horrific accident and the 6 months of arduous recovery that followed to discover she was a paraplegic. But as she explains to Warwick, her identity as “Janine the Machine,” the elite athlete, was not to be her destiny. She had another calling, learning to fly and training others to be pilots, and inspiring multitudes who have suffered tragedies and trials to embrace loss as their lives’ greatest teacher. An in-demand speaker whose Ted talk was been viewed more than 2 million times, Shepherd calls herself “a mirror to help people see their own defiant spirits." Her guiding philosophy? “Nothing comes easy, and if it did, it wouldn’t be worth having.” To learn more about Janine Shepherd, visit www.janineshepherd.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Original air date: May 9, 2023 Lauren Sisler was a freshman at Rutgers University when learned she had lost her father just hours after she had lost her mother. Having come home to grieve one parent, she was blindsided by the news that the other had died, too. And she had no idea how any of it had happened We speak with Sisler about that 2003 tragedy, when she was not only hit with the unfathomable news of the deaths of her mom and dad, but the shame she couldn’t shake after she learned how they died: from prescription-drug overdoses. It would take her years to break free from what she calls the shackles of that shame, keeping the truth to herself even as she launched a successful career as a sideline reporter for college football and gymnastics on ESPN and the SEC Network. But as she began to share the true story of her parents’ deaths, she discovered she could transfer the hope and healing she experienced in facing those hard truths to the audiences that heard her speaking them. To learn more about Lauren Sisler, visit www.laurensisler.com To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
The way of others before self. The path lined with humility, authenticity and selflessness. That's the road we discuss this week in our latest episode of the Series Within the Show, Stories from the Book Crucible Leadership. The historical figure we discuss here is Jesus – specifically His example of servant leadership and His exhortation for us to do as He did. Our conversation is designed to encourage you to think and act counter-culturally: leading in your workplace, your community, as a parent … in a way that makes the needs and wellbeing of others your highest priority. Why is that not only a noble goal, but a wise one, to aim for? As Warwick says, “Joy and fulfillment come when you’re serving other people, living with some other-centered purpose.” To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Misaligned, misguided identity is one of the greatest tripwires to our crucible experiences. Placing our worth in other people’s perceptions of us – based not on our true inner selves – is a recipe for struggle and setback. This week, we talk with former NFL quarterback Jeff Kemp, author of the new book, Receive: The Way of Jesus for Men. He stresses the necessity for men to build deep and meaningful friendships with each other in which they share the most intimate and important details of their lives. Because in doing so they will be all that God created them to be … in the areas that truly matter. And Kemp doesn’t sugarcoat how challenging forging such relationships can be. You’ll be floored when he talks about just how high the percentage is of men who don’t have a close and trusted friend they can share anything with on any topic. The insights he shares here are aimed at lowering that number considerably. To learn more about Jeff Kemp and to download his free Level-5 Friendship Playbook, visit www.jeffkempteam.com/men-huddle/ To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
A parent’s worst nightmare. That’s what Gerard Long and his wife, Jeannie, endured in 2005 when their son, Alex, committed suicide. And, inconceivably, it wouldn’t be their last nightmare. Their daughter, Rebecca, was killed in an accident in 2014. How did the Longs bounce back from their pair of life-shattering crucibles? Not quickly. And not easily. The trauma of the events nearly ripped their marriage in two, but as Gerard tells Warwick, they both found their way back to their faith – which not only helped them make sense of the tragedies, but create a life of greater significance and impact in their aftermath. Out of their pain the Longs created Awakened to God Ministries, where they carry out a mission close to their now-healed hearts: Showing others who’ve suffered hard times and loss that God can take the worst things that happen to us turn them for good. As Gerard explains, “Everything that God permits us to go through in our lives is preparation for what He’s got for us later on.” To learn more about Gerard Long, visit www.awakeningtogod.org To explore Beyond the Crucible assets, including our free Life of Significance assessment, visit www.beyondthecrucible.com Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States