Penny Casselman [00:00:00]:
A rising tide lifts all ships, which means when you take the focus off of yourself, shine it on someone else, and do something that helps them, you will feel a sense of gratitude and joy for yourself when you're done. I'd invite you to think about the last time someone came to you and asked for help. How did that make you feel? Did you stand a little taller and feel honored and flattered that someone would think of you and then come to you and ask for help? Knowing that they saw you as a knowledgeable person, a person that has influence, a person that has skills and ideas and is generous, who's willing to help someone else get ahead, it feels great. Welcome to the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life. Regardless of where you came from, life is what you make of it.
Penny Casselman [00:01:10]:
And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities. Go grab your favorite beverage, and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Welcome to the podcast director. How are you today? I hope that before you push play, you picked up your red marker and said, gosh, darn it. I am claiming this time for myself right now. I'm gonna fill my ears with some goodness, with a clarity cocktail, and set myself up for some success. That is my hope. That is the whole reason that I show up every single week here for you.
Penny Casselman [00:01:58]:
Now I realize though that maybe you are not coming from a place where you are feeling empowered and on fire and like you are ready to take on the world. You could perhaps be feeling frustrated or overwhelmed. Maybe you're feeling stuck, uninspired. Maybe you've caught yourself saying, I'm fine. I'm fine. No, I'm really, everything is fine. Perhaps a few too many times recently. I want you to breathe because today is a good day to reset.
Penny Casselman [00:02:34]:
Today is a great day to find a way to reframe so that you can reclaim your energy, your power, your focus, your belief, your willingness to take action, and get yourself into that vision that you are clinging onto for your future. I don't know if this has ever happened to you before, but have you ever been put on the spot and asked a question and felt like the entire world was waiting on your every breath for the golden nugget, the perfect answer that you were asked to deliver, but nothing came out of your mouth? Hand raised here, I can still remember sitting in a corporate conference room and just out of the periphery heard someone say, Penny, and I sat up quickly and got asked a question. I was sweating, my cheeks went red, my hands got clammy and I had to just respond with, I'll get back to you because I was caught off guard and I completely blanked out. Now, if you have also found yourself in that situation, maybe it was because you were feeling overwhelmed, stuck, uninspired, but we need a break from ourselves. We can become so internally focused that we can lose sight of an obvious answer, an obvious solution to what is before us that is causing us consternation. So in this episode, I want us to stop focusing completely on ourselves and recognize it's okay to take a beat, take a pause, take a breath, grab your favorite cocktail, wink, and allow yourself the gift to focus outward and start sharing yourself with others without any expectation. I have a post it stuck to my monitor in front of me and it says, today I can help someone. That is a phrase that deeply resonates with me when I find myself overwhelmed or frustrated, stuck, uninspired.
Penny Casselman [00:04:54]:
All of those emotions that come up when I find I'm so internally focused. I look at that post it and remind myself what I'm doing isn't about me. Yes. I have to be involved to make certain things happen in my life, but truly at the end of the day, I'm here for the connection, for the sharing, for the exploration of all the things that comprise our life. And so that's what I wanna explore today. How can you help someone today and pull yourself from a spot of feeling stuck, uninspired, and move into a place where you have absolute belief, vision, and are ready to take action in your life to move yourself forward and in turn help more people. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail comes from Albert Schweitzer.
Penny Casselman [00:06:08]:
At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. I appreciate these sage words from Albert Schweitzer because again, too often are we looking inward, trying to figure out everything in life when there is so much inspiration and help and optimism all around us in any given moment on any given day. When we feel the spark within us dimming or going out, looking further inward may not be the solution. In fact, Albert is sharing with us that as we move through life, think about the people who have impacted us with deep gratitude. We need to acknowledge them because something that they did lit a fire within us. Here in the US, it is still October when this episode drops. This is breast cancer awareness month of which I happen to be a survivor of.
Penny Casselman [00:07:21]:
I will tell you there were many days in my cancer adventure where it felt like the flame inside of me had gone out, that I was feeling tired, frustrated, uninspired. And there are so many people as I reflect who helped generate a spark and give me my light back. Sometimes it was as simple as someone in the waiting room smiling at me. Oftentimes it was the staff at the hospital who welcomed me in. I was fortunate to have doctors that I liked, nurses that were not only caring for me, but engaged with me, offered me hope and joy during a journey that, if you can imagine, was not very fun. I would invite you as you move through this week to take a pause, maybe hit pause right now on the podcast and give it some thought, but pause and think about who in your life helped you rekindle a spark you felt you had lost. It might be someone you didn't even know, but have gratitude for that they held the door for you, they smiled, you dropped something and they picked it up for you. The interactions can be small, but the impact can be huge.
Penny Casselman [00:08:46]:
I want you to have gratitude because there is bountiful research out there that will show when you exhibit deep gratitude, you will find more peace and more joy in your life. And so I'll read the quote again. At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. Have deep gratitude director, and you will find yourself on the other side feeling more joy, abundance, and appreciation for everyone and everything around you. And now, back to the episode. Cheers. Coming around to this idea that we should look outward often when we are feeling stuck and frustrated and think how can I help someone else today? Set yourself to the side and focus on someone external.
Penny Casselman [00:09:53]:
I wanna offer you 3 different ideas that can help you turn the focus on to other people. The first is connection. This is something that you can do in your own silo. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to do anything extra. This is something that could take you 5 minutes and create a huge impact on someone else. And that is just remind someone what they mean to you. Certainly during the pandemic, we found ourselves very much lacking connection.
Penny Casselman [00:10:31]:
And I've caught glimpses of articles about an epidemic of loneliness that we are experiencing now that we are so focused and connected on our selfie culture. We are constantly tied to our phones, constantly tied to social media apps. We are losing that bit of humanity when people come together. And so with this first idea for you, connection, remind someone what they mean to you. Just last week, I sat down and wrote out some gratitude cards, put them in the mail, and sent them to some close friends. It is now going to be a weekly practice that I'm putting in place for myself because I can do it from anywhere, and I can do it at any time. And truly, there are so many people in my life that I have immense gratitude for. I know that I do not take enough time to let them know.
Penny Casselman [00:11:33]:
So you could send them a note like I did through the snail mail, you can send them a text, you could send them a voice memo that they can then listen to at their leisure. The second idea that I have for you is volunteer. We all have unique skills. For instance, for me, I am very good at anything to do with home improvements, whether that's painting or fixing a door handle or fixing a toilet, or I don't know, the list goes on and on for me, but I can use those skills to help someone else. Now, perhaps your skill is not in manual labor, but perhaps you're savvy at spreadsheets, you're fantastic at accounting, maybe you're good at biology. All of the unique skills that you bring to the table, I guarantee there is some volunteer group out there who could use your exact skills to help others within the organization. Now you might be asking, how do I find such wonderful unicorn organizations? Well, there is the Google machine, which I am a huge fan of. You could probably also go ask chat GPT for how can I go about finding volunteer opportunities in my area? And it would probably deliver a whole list of ways for you to explore.
Penny Casselman [00:13:03]:
Unlike the 1st connection opportunity I offered, the volunteer opportunity probably is very time constrained and scheduled. If that appeals more to you, volunteering might be a fabulous way for you to help someone. The third thing I can offer is donate. We have the opportunity to help others in many ways. 1 with our time, 2 with our talents, and 3 with money. If you are finding yourself short on scheduled time, if you don't want to get vulnerable with close friends, family in your life to reconnect, donation to a cause that you believe in may be the way you want to help someone. Here's a little nuance you can spin on it. How about you have gratitude that you have the money, that you can share with an organization that champions helping others in a specific area of need in their life? It's almost kind of a 2 for 1.
Penny Casselman [00:14:13]:
You have gratitude for yourself that you're able to do this, and you extend your gratitude to an organization who will go out on your behalf and make someone's life better because of something you were able to contribute. So in quick recap, we have connection, we have volunteering, and we have donation. 3 ways that today you could help someone. Certainly in the connection, 5 minutes, tell someone what you appreciate about them, or you can quickly find an organization that you believe in on the internet and make a donation. I love all three of these opportunities and ways to explore them, not only as I move forward in my life, but hopefully this sparked an idea for you to move forward in your life. And know this, a rising tide lifts all ships, which means when you take the focus off of yourself, shine it on someone else and do something that helps them, you will feel a sense of gratitude and joy for yourself when you're done. I'd invite you to think about the last time someone came to you and asked for help. How did that make you feel? Did you stand a little taller and feel honored and flattered that someone would think of you and then come to you and ask for help? Knowing that they saw you as a knowledgeable person, a person that has influence, a person that has skills and ideas and is generous, who is willing to help someone else get ahead.
Penny Casselman [00:15:56]:
It feels great. It's also easy when someone else comes to you and asks for help. So I know that these 3 connection, volunteer, and donate might be a little bit more challenging because they're asking you to find the focus and determination to make any one of them happen. And look, if you get stuck, I cannot stress this enough, I am holding my red marker when I tell you this, ask for help, even if you don't think you know anyone who volunteers or you don't think you know anybody who routinely expresses gratitude or donates to a cause that they care about, simply posing the question to a friend, to a colleague, how do you help people in need? They might spur a thought for you that I didn't even think to add into this episode. And let's not forget what happened when the Grinch chose to save Christmas. His heart grew 3 sizes bigger after he took the focus off of himself and onto others to help them. So, yeah, as we head into the holiday season, I want you to act like the Grinch. I want you to find a way to help someone so that your heart can grow 3 sizes bigger as well.
Penny Casselman [00:17:33]:
Director, I want you to know that where you stand today, regardless of how you're feeling, stuck, frustrated, bored, uninspired, you do possess a tremendous amount of value and inspiration for others. You may not be able to see it right now, but trust me, when you embrace the idea of connection, volunteering, or donating, you will feel a new level of gratitude for how far you have come, and you'll be gifting yourself a piece of joy and some inspiration for you to move forward. Until next week, go channel the Grinch. Think about a rising tide lifts all ships, and hold fast to the idea that today you can help someone. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of Pivot with Passion. If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, This is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand, and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker.
Penny Casselman [00:19:10]:
Get excited for your future and make your first move to pivot with passion.
