403 | The Healthy Vineyard

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

healthy, life, god, relationship, discover, unhealthy, spend, career, workbook, talking, people, business, important, areas, category, personal, leader, healthiest version, struggling, event

SPEAKERS

 Chris LoCurto

 

Chris LoCurto  00:10

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show, where we discuss leadership and life, and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

 

Chris LoCurto  00:21

Welcome to the show folks, we hope you're having a fabulous day where you are. We have just finished up another great quarterly retreat that we do with our Mastermind group, we had over 30 plus folks that traveled here to Franklin, Tennessee to join us. They get four events a year that they come and join us and we teach. And this year, we did one of our signature lessons that we call "The Healthy Vineyard". Now, if you want to explore the vine and the wine elements a little deeper, then you can go to a previous podcast, which is number 198. And it's titled "What You Have in Common with Wine." That's a very powerful episode, everybody needs to hear this. So make sure that you get to 198 and listen to that episode, that will make a lot more sense when we talk about the digging into your root system, and identifying surface level responses. Toxic behavior, and you know, cultivating a healthy vineyard, it'll make a lot more sense. Those of you that have already listened to it, or have been through Next Level Life, especially those that have been through Next Level Life. This obviously will go along with what you've already learned and walked through, and this will help as well. So, whether you've never experienced Next Level Life, or you've been through it, this is going to help you exactly where you are. And we're talking about this today because at the quarterly retreat, one of our clients, great guy, Henry said, "You know, I planned out 2021 for my business, but I did not plan out my personal life." And so hey, maybe that's you today. So that is why we are talking about this. Maybe in 2020, you got tossed around like a pinball, maybe COVID hit. Maybe it was good for you business wise, maybe it was good for you personally, maybe it wasn't.

 

Chris LoCurto  02:24

Today, what we want to talk about is how do you set up this year personally for you? And men. Men, I'm going to talk to you directly for a second. So listen, guys particularly do a good job of setting up the career side. But they don't focus on the personal side. A lot of times, guys think that they don't need to focus on the personal side, they don't need to set anything up. They don't need to take care of that, focus on the career. That's the important thing. Why is that? Well, many times, men are getting a lot of their identity and their worth from their career. Guys, listen to me.

 

Chris LoCurto  03:04

If you are focusing on your career, and you are not taking care of your personal life, then you cannot be surprised when things fall apart. when things don't go as well. You need to be focusing, by the way, for those of us that are believers, you need to be focusing on your personal life before your career. Go take a look at Ephesians four, five and six and see how God lays out the importance of relationships and what it should look like. So you need to be focusing on that. You need to be putting God first, then your spouse, then your kids, then your work. This is what's important to Him. So we're gonna get into talking about goal setting, all of the things that we're going to hit today we are going to focus on the wheel of life. So we're going to talk about that when we come back right after this.

 

Chris LoCurto  03:53

Hey leaders, what does this past year taught you? for many of you, the events of 2020 opened your eyes to core challenges and struggles that are deep within your business. I'm sure we can all agree that business as usual just won't cut it this year. But as a leader and a business owner, you may not know where to go from here. So I'm here to tell you that it's time to make a change. As a leader, it's time to pour into your business and your team, by learning and implementing new core skills that will make an immediate impact. It's time to sign up for the Next Level Leadership Live Event this April. This event is tailor made for small business owners and leaders just like you, helping you to move forward even in a climate of fear and uncertainty. This is not a positive thinking session, but a strategic thinking workshop, chock-full of insightful teaching and impactful learnings that's going to equip you to return to your business and your team ready to implement and immediately impact their growth and stability. Tickets to the Next Level Leadership Live Event are available right now at a special early bird rate. Go to chrislocurto.com/liveevent, or text "liveevent", one word, to the number 44222 for more information and to get your tickets. Again, that's chrislocurto.com/liveevent. It's time to change your business and your leadership for the better. Don't miss it.

 

Chris LoCurto  05:27

Alright I'm going to give you back to nonna because I got to finish the show, baby.

 

Harlyn  05:30

Okay!

 

Chris LoCurto  05:30

I love you mucho.

 

Harlyn  05:31

I love you tooooo!

 

Chris LoCurto  05:35

Bye, baby.

 

Chris LoCurto  05:40

*Chuckles*Behind the scenes.

 

Chris LoCurto  05:42

Alright, we are talking about what are you going to do this year to set it up personally for you, not just business, we're going to talk a little bit about business. But how are we going to set up your personal year? Right? What does that look like? And so we are going to look at what makes you healthy. So this is one of the elements that we teach in Next Level Life. And obviously, we're getting to a short portion of this that you can use today, that you can make happen today. And we're gonna look at what does it look like to be healthy? If you're going to set your year up personally, then one of the best ways to focus on it is to discover; how can I be the healthiest version of me? And so this is what we're doing, we're giving you guys a free workbook, a step-by-step workbook that you can do with this process. It is free, this isn't a small, tiny one sheet or something like that. This is a workbook for you to go through this whole process. So you can download that. Obviously if you're on the website, it's already there. If you're on iTunes, or Spotify or whatever, I believe-this is how much I understand all of this stuff-I believe you just click my head or push my head up or something like that and then you'll see the information there where you can download the workbook. But this is a step-by-step process, helping you to find balance in every major category of life. You'll assess your status, you'll determine what's healthy, what's not, and then create an action plan. That's what we're going to be talking about today. And we're not going to go through all of this, I'm only going to hit-believe it or not, I'm only gonna be able to get to a couple of pieces-that workbook will have the rest of that information. So, we are using The Wheel of Life. This is something that I have focused on for decades. It's something that Zig Ziglar made popular, we have a couple of adjustments, so I'm going to run around The Wheel of Life, no pun intended, but that worked out. And tell you the ways that we have a tiny little shift. So, Career. That is self-explanatory. Financial, your personal finances, not your business finances, your personal finances. Spiritual we change to God. Your God relationship. This is your relationship directly with God, not church. That would go under Social because that's something you do socially with people. I'm talking about your direct relationship with God. If you're not a believer, you can leave it as Spiritual if you want, that's perfectly fine as well. We have plenty of folks that are listening in that are not believers. But still you want to look at what is what is your spiritual life look like? Physical being. Intellectual, we change to Personal, and by that what we say is your feelings, thoughts, intellect, emotions, all of that stuff that makes up you, individually. Family, which is your family, how you define it today. And then Social. Now when I say Social a lot of business owners out there are like and a lot of you leaders as well are like, "I don't need a social life." Yes, believe it or not, you actually do. It is very important to have that. So this is what we're focusing on: Career, Financial, God relationship, Physical, Personal, Family and Social. So, here's what we're going to do first; the first thing I want you to do is, I want you to take inventory of where you are. So go ahead. And obviously, if you've got the workbook in front of you right now, you can go ahead and start with this right now. But this is something every aspect of what I'm going to ask you to do, I want you to do a deep dive. If you're scribbling out answers as fast as you can, then believe it or not, you're probably not getting to the best information, and you're probably not being honest with yourself, right? So I want you to take a hard look in each one of those areas, and ask, "Where am I? What is my current status in my career? Do I feel like I am utilizing my gifts and talents, do I feel like I have conflict, do I feel like I'm doing a great job leading, do I feel like I have the tools to be the best leader I can be, or the best spouse or mom or dad or whatever your career role is, right? Do I have the best tools? Am I doing a good job? Do I feel fulfilled?" Listen, we're not looking to walk through, "Am I happy, happy?" It's, "What is my status?" If you're happy, great, write that down. If you're not, write that down as well. But our goal isn't to go, "Do I love every bit of my career right at this moment?" We definitely want you to love your career. But we're looking for every aspect of it.

 

Chris LoCurto  10:44

 "Do I have good relationships at work? Am I struggling to get things done? Am I seeking worth from my leader, from my team, from peers, from anybody? Am I struggling with my identity?" Go through every aspect of your career as much as you possibly can. And you're going to do this and in every single of the seven areas, right? And write down, "Where am I today? What does it look like?" Then, here's what I want you to do, then I want you to go to "What makes me healthy?" In each one of these areas. Now this is tough, but I'm going to hit a couple of them here in just a little bit and kind of walk you through what that looks like. But the goal is, if I'm going to be my healthiest in this area, if I'm going to be healthy in my family, what does that look like? Not my family's health-what does it look like for me to be the healthiest version of me in that category? What does it look like for me to be the healthiest version of me in a social life, in a financial life? All those different pieces, those different aspects of your life. Then the third thing we're going to do, is we're going to go through, "What makes me unhealthy?"

 

Chris LoCurto  12:02

Guys, you really need to dig in on this piece. Now again, for those that have been through Next Level Life, by the time we get to this, we've spent about a day and a half discovering all kinds of great information so it's a lot easier, this is probably going to be decently tough, of looking at what makes me unhealthy in like, let's go back to the Career again, if I am seeking worth from my leaders, if I can't handle conflict, if I am being controlling with my team, if I am escaping leadership, if I-whatever the things are, that are causing me to be unhealthy, I need to discover those. I need to see what it is that I'm doing, so that I can be honest with myself and then put together a plan of how I'm going to tackle that thing are those things, right? You should probably end up with, you know, four, five, six solid points, not just little things. "What makes me unhealthy in my work? Well, when somebody doesn't say hi to me in the morning." Unless that really messes you up. No, that actually might be a big one. If you're losing worth like crazy because somebody hasn't said "Hi", then that's probably something you need to write down. So I want you to examine yourself in every single category. This is super important. Why? Because the more we understand where our current situation is, our current status and each one of these areas, we understand what makes us healthy in these areas. And it may be stuff that you're not currently doing. That's uber important, right? Don't just think of things you are doing. Think of things if I did do this, this would make me very healthy. And then seeing what makes you unhealthy. All of that is going to help you to then look at you, and ask yourself this question. "In each one of these areas, how healthy am I?"

 

Chris LoCurto  14:03

So if you look at your current status of your career, you see what makes you healthy, you see what makes you unhealthy, then ask the question, put it on a scale of zero to 100. If 100% was the healthiest you could possibly be, how healthy are you? If zero is the unhealthiest you could possibly be, how unhealthy are you, right? So think of 50% is not being healthy, but not being unhealthy. Right? That midpoint. What you will discover, if you are being very honest, is that there's going to be some areas that you're unhealthy in. The area you're probably the most unhealthy with, and this is going to offend all you christians. Is that God relationship. That is one, if you are absolutely honest with yourself, on a scale of zero to 100, how healthy are youm you will probably find you're like a 25%. "Oh Chris, I have a great relationship with God." I know I hear it all the time. Like, "Tell me about your relationship." "I go to church every week." "That's not your relationship with God. Doing that task is not your relationship with God. I'm talking about what does it look like to have an intimate relationship with the king of the universe? I'm talking about how much time do you spend with Him, not hearing about Him, not reading books about Him. The actual King of the universe, who is your father, the one who owns you, the one who wants relationship with you." When you dig into those pieces, what you'll discover is, that's probably an area that's lacking pretty heavily. When you look around your life, you'll see God is important, but he's probably not in every aspect. And so that's a big key. That's an important thing to be really honest with yourself about.

 

Chris LoCurto  15:57

So go through and write down, you might discover that you're like a 75% in your career, because you put all your emphasis in your career, and then your family is like at a 40%. Right? Because it may be struggling. And what you will see, if you do this well, if you're very honest with yourself, if you do this well, what you'll see is where your priorities are. Because your higher numbers are going to be where your priorities are. Now, don't take what I just said there and try and, you know, game this, it's important to set this year up so you can be as healthy as you possibly can be. That's the goal. Our goal isn't to do this so that you look at yourself and go, "Man, I suck in a few areas." No, you need to know that you suck in a few areas, so that you can do something about those areas. Our goal isn't to look at this and feel horrible about ourselves. Our goal is to look at this and go wow, I am lacking. I have not taken this in-depth look at myself to see that I'm struggling in my family. I've not taken this in-depth look to see that my finances are are kind of crappy right now. That my physical being is not so good. That I have zero social life, right? The goal is, how can I be healthier? How can I set this year up to be the healthiest version of me? So, we're going to walk through the action steps when we come back right after this.

 

17:29

Next Level Life is our two day personal discovery experience. It's a one-on-one personalized event where we guide you through a process to help you discover your root system, to get unstuck in life, and to discover what's holding you back from freedom and peace. Imagine this: what if you could wake up every morning with a clear purpose? What would it look like to have healthier relationships with less conflict? Where would you be in a few months, a year, five years if you had clarity, purpose, and peace? Probably a big difference from where you stand today. Now, I know it's possible, because I've been where you are asking myself, "Is there more?" There is, and there's a better way. And it starts with Next Level Life. You can go to chrislocurto.com/discover to take the next step. Now if you're struggling with discontentment, regret, or not feeling good enough, which most of you are, if you're filled with anxiety, or your relationships are lacking, don't keep going through the same motions every single day. Learn how to move past the things robbing you of peace. Go to chrislocurto.com/discover and take the next step.

 

Chris LoCurto  18:44

Okay, we are hitting the action steps now. So what we've done is we've taken a hard look at our Status, "What is my status in each one of these areas?" Then we've taken a hard look at, "What makes me healthy?" Then we've looked at, "What makes me unhealthy?" Again, if you have not downloaded the workbook, get the workbook. This will make this so much easier for you. This will help you out in this process. "So now what do we do about this Chris? Great, I see this, I'm a 65% as far as healthy in my social life, I'm a 90 in my finances, I'm a 25% in my relationship with God, I'm a 40% with my family, I'm a 50% personally." You know, whatever it is, whatever those numbers are, now we put some action steps to it. Oh, and by the way, looking at the numbers because I'm I have yet to find anybody who's 100 in anything, 400 events we've done nobody's that healthy, right? So here's the thing I want you to look at. You have lots of room for improvement. When you see the numbers, don't let them be depressing. Let them be something that you say, "Great, now I can do something about that, I can grow in that area." So, what does it look like to put an action step together? Well, I'm always going to start with God. Why?

 

Chris LoCurto  20:08

Folks, listen to me, believers, listen to me, there is no more important relationship than the one you're supposed to have with God. And what I like to point out to people, when they say, "Well, what does that even mean?" So let's say you were going to date somebody, or you you wanted to date somebody, right? And you hear about this person, you've never met him. But lots of people have told you about this person. They've told you about their characteristics, you know, the good sides, the bad sides, how attractive they are, how funny they are, all of these pieces. And you go around, and you learn from other people more stuff about this person. What is your relationship with that person? Zero. You don't have a relationship with that person. It's not until you actually spend personal time with that person that you actually grow a relationship. It is the craziest thing that we do not recognize. That's exactly what God wants with us. For us. He is pursuing your heart like crazy. He's pursuing you, and He wants you to have a relationship with them. But the thing is, you've got to do your part. So, what does that mean? Yes, do you need to be doing things like spending time with a group of people trying to grow closer to God? Absolutely, you definitely do. Should you be reading your Bible? Constantly. Constantly. One of the best things I ever did, was in the lowest time of my life, I buried my face in God's word. I knew for the longest time that I needed to spend more time in his word. I knew that I did. And in the lowest point of my life, the most traumatic experience I've ever had in my life, I buried my face in His Word, and I didn't come out. I would spend hours every morning. Reading, reading, before I did that, I would spend a ton of time in prayer, on my knees, praying. Then I will go and spend time in his word. And I have not stopped doing that for a very, very long time. Every single morning, I get up, and I pray. And I spend time on his word. And it's a decent amount of time. On the weekends, we spend even more time. My wife and I, this is what we do, every morning. We pray. We spend time on God's word, we do lots of Bible study. And then on the weekends, it's increased like twice the amount. And we spent a couple hours each day, Saturday and Sunday, just digging into prayer and God's word. Why? Because it's the most important relationship you'll ever have in your life.

 

Chris LoCurto  23:13

It should be. He wants that relationship with you. It's amazing the stuff that you learn about Him when you spend time with Him. I can't tell you the the number of people who claim to be Christian that don't know squat about God. That just speaks to the relationship, right? So what does it look like to put action steps together in that category? Well, first, I've got to take a hard look at what my true relationship is. If I believe that it's spending time at church-that's not it. That's something you do. And by the way, a couple of things, spend time with people who are trying to grow closer to God. Don't go to church to be spoken at. Don't go to church because you think some pastor is going to be responsible for your salvation. He is not. Don't think that some pastor is going to be responsible for your relationship with God, he is not. And by the way, if you're going to any place that tells you that you're not supposed to be obedient to God, run. Get away from there, as fast as you can. God has not changed how much he wants you to be obedient to Him. He wants you to seek His will and follow it. Not your own. He doesn't care about your will. You will not find a single place in the Bible where God says, "I'm so concerned about your will." He only talks about his own. And that's what we're supposed to go after, right? So spend time with people that are seeking God, our ecclesia that we have together our called out congregation is focusing heavily on our relationship with God. We have some that are been doing this walk for a long time and some that are brand spanking new. But our focus is how do we learn more about him? How do we go deep? Not just a scripture verse that's taken out of context, and spoken about with a whole bunch of personal stories. What does God word say, and what does it mean? What does he want us to know? So take a hard look at where you are. Take a look at what makes you healthy, spending time with Him. spending time on His word. You can read books about God, just make sure it's way less than His book that He has written for you. Discover that. And by the way, if you've not read the book, you're still not ready for it. If you've not read the book, Pagan Christianity, get a copy.

 

Chris LoCurto  25:44

Get a copy of that book, and man. And listen, for those of you that listen on audiobook, I'm telling you, this is one of those ones you need a paperback, get your face in this thing, highlight, circle, question. You're not ready for this book. I'm just telling you, it'll change your life. It'll change the way you relate to God as well. Also, make sure that you are trying to get like mentors, people in your life that are further in their walk than you are, that you can spend time with. Alright, these are all great action steps that you can put in place. I could spend so much time on just the one category. That's just the God one. Right? Let me take an easy one. Financial, take a look at what makes you healthy, right? What are the things that make you healthy? Well, you understand that living on a budget makes you healthy. Living below your means makes you healthy. Not emotionally spending, which a lot of people do, getting your worth from buying things, right? That lasts for literally five minutes. You know, make sure that you're on a plan that you're you and your spouse are on the same page. Guys if you're the one who's working the budget and everything, you better make sure that you're sitting down with your wife and you're both on the same page, right? Ladies, vice-versa. Don't be putting things together and then you're not actually working this plan together. So what are action steps? If you've not been through Financial Peace University, get it going. Buy it, go through it. Make it happen.

 

Chris LoCurto  27:26

It is absolutely phenomenal on how it will change the way you look at your finances. Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey, make it happen. Get it done, do it. It will change the way you handle finances. Get on a budget. Get a debt payoff plan. If you have debt, get rid of it. Pay it off, put a plan together, that will make you healthier. Make sure that you're living below your means, if you make $100, don't spend $110. Spend $90. Or less, spend $70. Save some money, right? Saving is a smart plan. These are all action steps that you can put together to make your financial area of your life much healthier. Okay. Those are just two categories to focus on. And seriously, there's so much more information that you need to be putting down as you go through Personal, what are the action steps that you need to take to make you the healthiest version of you, in your personal life, your feelings, thoughts, intellect, emotions, a lot of you are having to get rid of victim mentality. A lot of you have to stop getting a worth from human beings. If you don't know what your true worth is, get your face in God's word and discover it, find out what He says your worth is, not what a human being says. A human can never make you worthy. When it comes to your family, men. Believe it or not, God believes that you're responsible. And he doesn't believe, He says it. He tells us it's your responsibility to lead your family to Him and in relationship with Him. Make it happen, if you're not leading your family to God, why not? Make it happen. So look through every category and ask, "What steps must I do to be healthier?" And that will start a great path for you having the healthiest year you can possibly have. And then we just keep doing this, right? We just keep growing. People come back through Next Level Life for multiple events. Why? Because after you tackle stuff, there's another level. There's actually 700 levels. So, well, folks, hopefully this has helped you today. You know a lot of folks that need to hear this. You know a lot of folks that need to be working through this workbook as well help them out. Get them this information. Also do us a favor, like this on iTunes. Give us a comment so that we can help more people. The more people we can help have a healthier year, the better. So take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life. And join us, on the next episode.

DOWNLOAD

To help you get (and stay) healthy, we’re including a FREE life-oriented, goal-setting download to help you dig deep into your personal health. Don’t miss this opportunity, while we’re still early in the year, to really set yourself up for success!

This Healthy Vineyard Workbook will walk you through A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS of finding balance in every major category of life - your Wheel of Life. You’ll assess your status, determine what’s healthy and what’s not, then create a tailored action plan.

Subscribe to show:

.