S8E14- The Quest for Clarity: Unveiling Your Meaningful Revolution
===
Shawn Buttner: [00:00:00] What is a meaningful
revolution? question you can ask yourself
to check if
you're on track
or
not with your personal meaningful evolution? What is the meaningful matrix that describes that? And what is the one thing that
should all be
doing in order to
realize and
amplify
the dreams, the
ambitions, the purpose, The meaningful things in our life.
That's what we're
going to talk about
in today's episode of the meaningful
Revolution podcast.
Hey everyone. It's Shawn Buttner, host of the
Meaningful Revolution
podcast, and
welcome to this almost
100 episode, or near 100th episode, it's 99. as we're watching this. And as such,
I've been doing a lot of reflection. I had
a dream to do [00:01:00] the 100th episode
live on YouTube.
So you can check out my
YouTube channel in the show notes below if you want to join me on that
week.
And
we'll
some questions.
I'll
talk
a little
bit more about things that I've
learned
and things that are really special
in that episode. So stay tuned for that. You should be able to subscribe to it on my YouTube channel as of right now. Anyways, okay, thinking
about
a
hundred episodes of this thing that I started two years ago, a year and
a half ago, two
years ago,
it's pretty wild.
I
think
the idea of the Meaningful
Revolutions evolved a bit.
I know every so often I do these episodes as I'm thinking through and trying to Get a little bit clearer on
what
my personal revolution is and what that means
for
you guys and gals
and folks.
So
that's what
we're going to talk about [00:02:00] today. And so
I'll just go through those five questions
that I posed here.
At the starting of the episode, tell a couple of stories. what
is a
meaningful revolution ?
The Meaningful Revolution podcast is for people who are for and about creating
meaning in their lives to lead, to serve,
and to live with more
joy and create positive change out
in the world, right?
So it's people that
are out there,
really crushing their dreams and realizing,
they're sharing their messages and purpose out
in the world actively with clarity.
It's people dreaming about
starting their meaningful revolution. they know that what they want to go and accomplish, but they don't know
how to get there or they're not
actively taking action towards it.
There are folks that are trying tons of things, but
are not sure
what their purpose really is. [00:03:00] So they're out
there taking a lot of
action, but
trying to shape what that, that
meaningful revolution is. And then there are people that are just not sure and are not taking
action. They're just
wandering, right?
And so
these are the kinds
of folks
that I've seen
in the audience.
And if you identify with
any of those, I'm cheering you on, right?
This is a continue or continuum,
not
a set of,
It's not meant to discourage or to point a finger at or anything, right?
So it's just how
I organize
folks that are on this meaningful
revolution journey.
So
this could be people that
are fed up
with not having control of their destiny. So they're maybe they're working at a job
that is not
helping them grow to live fully, to
thrive. or providing that sense of fulfillment in service to helping people or creating a legacy that
they
want. [00:04:00] It's
someone who does want to feel
more fulfilled every day.
and maybe they have obligations that are preventing them from serving
with more
excellence.
it could be people that are burning through all
personal development, all of the different
hobbies, all of different
career
development
in
a
very
desperate
attempt and search to
find their thing, could just be people that just want more out of their life for themselves,
for their family, for their
organization, community, mission, and And so it's taken 100 episodes to get that clear and trying to
articulate
the kind
of people that are
on and
have joined the meaningful revolution. And hopefully that's you.
and the question I have
for you is where in your life
are
you striving for
that sense of more for that sense of fulfillment, a
full expression
of [00:05:00] meaning that is showing
you
as a role model for,
How we should be out
in the world, right?
Because I think people that are connected
a passion
are actively pursuing it, growing it, sharing it
other people, have
a very more, have a more buoyant energy,
and are actually doing good
out in the world. And that's what the,
the, general idea is for this because, this podcast started
as the idea,
just going
to interview or
I'm going to interview people that nerd
out about certain topics,
explore that, learn how they got into,
actually taking action
on their dream or their passion or
purpose or their
mission and try to extrapolate what they did so that other people could And if I'm honest with you, in the last 100 episodes, I've not been
super great at that particular thing. We've had
some [00:06:00] amazing guests,
and tons of amazing insights,
and not having this focus,
this clear,
has prevented maybe some more
of that edgy, or
more of that,
impactful,
connection to
how you can So
that's something I'm continuing to work on
and will continue to work on for the next hundred episodes of the podcast.
But, yeah,
so that this is where we're
at right now. So
hopefully if I've been doing my job you thought Hey, this is for me. And if not, that's totally cool too.
it
feels like right now the podcast
is in a pivot. Point where I've been
maybe too vague on the outcome
or why people should listen or how this is helpful to you
And we're going to try to bring
that more into clarity. So
I just wanted
to point that out. I thought
you guys might like a little bit
of the behind the scenes thinking behind
[00:07:00] this podcast.
So
which comes
to our first
question is what
is a
meaningful revolution?
right?
And again, the way
I defined it at
the top of this
episode is it's, this is a
movement for people that
are out
there following their meaningful pursuits and are actively taking action to lead, yeah.
More effectively to serve
greater with a greater impact and to have the joy and confidence
comes with knowing that you're on your path, knowing that you
are
really getting after the thing that lights your
fire in your heart,
and
You're doing it, right?
So I want to
celebrate that.
for me, my meaningful revolution.
And when I look back at my career,
which
started.
as a software engineer for
a big company, you might know called
Walmart, [00:08:00] with a small period of
trying to
start a business, and then
ending up at Apple as a
software engineer,
it's that path is
insane to me,
And it's insane because
I
other than having
an interest
in computers since I could walk, essentially, I didn't have
any,
computer science training, right?
I did a programming class in high school. I went to
business school for my undergrad and
graduate.
work, and then
the graduate work, I had
another, a semester or two of
Java
programming, right? That's the extent of software engineering that
I had taken in my formal
education
with a business
focus, mind you,
And then landing my first job in corporate
America as a
software
developer and
getting enough experience at that first job to then work at
Apple, right?
It's insane to me. this
is me following [00:09:00] my passion,
following something I was really interested in,
not giving up on
that, even though I
didn't really get the formal training behind
it, and
it into
a successful career over 12, 14 years,
right?
I have
to do the math
in real time
as I'm doing this.
I'm not going to do that
because I'll goof it up. But It's insane to me, right? I can't believe that
was my path, and
then
to
get More
interested in helping people as a certified high performance and helping people discover
what their passions are
and maybe start businesses on something
they believed in, on principle or something they needed
for themselves and
their family so that they could be a happy adult.
these are things that was also insane. It's it's
very.
Surprising. I feel very fortunate to have been able to help those folks out and so many others in my coaching practice and then [00:10:00] really just connecting with, Oh, I want to serve
people
and I want to figure
out how do I have that impact at a
greater scale, right?
Part
of that led me
create this podcast. Part of
it has
led me to try
a bunch of
doing YouTube videos and
stuff.
Which. Looking back, it's been
very great training on how to talk
to a
camera and not
feel like a
deer in headlights about to get run over. As someone that's an introvert, it's also helped me manage the habits around
creation so that
I have the energy to do these things.
And, sometimes it worked out,
sometimes
my
energy
seemed really flat, probably.
And I'm sure you
guys don't notice it, but I do,
and it's something I'm striving to get better at and
striving to really
help deliver
more value to you
in
these podcasts and everything else
I do, because ultimately I want to help people and serve people so [00:11:00] that they can help people
and serve people and then they help to people to help and serve better and so on and so forth.
You have that crazy. triangle, right?
of
people helping, serving, and leading in
their
spaces.
So that's that's my dream for my personal Meaningful Revolution is to have that impact out in the world.
And
yeah,
I love
doing this. And it's been really,
it's one of the most hardest things I've ever done
in my life.
But! you have to not give up and
just keep going.
and that's what I've been doing. So if you've been with me
for a while, thank you. And
if you're one of my friends
or family that continually listens to this thing, I see you.
I am eternally
grateful. And I love
it. If you're
new to the podcast,
welcome.
I hope you
become one of those people that sticks along with us. And I hope
[00:12:00] you Start
your meaningful rev. I hope you take action towards
your passions, those meaningful pursuits, those things that will
help
generate the legacy and abundance and joy
for yourself in the world
that you can be that role model and
inspire other people So
that's the first question. What is
the meaningful revolution
in general
and then
to me
personally,
And What would your meaningful revolution be if you could have a greater impact, if you could lead with more
excellence and effectiveness,
if you could really shift how your day went and could wake up every
day and do things that were meaningful, that helped advance your life
and helped your family and your
community?
What would your meaningful revolution be?
And I
want you to write that down somewhere, and I want you to put it up
by
your computer so you see it [00:13:00] every day. As a reminder for you
to
choose to follow that.
even
if it's just a little bit.
even if it's just I'm going to read one
article on my
mission, my purpose, my interest, the thing that I would nerd out about no matter what I
would read an article anyways, but now I'm gonna be a little bit more intentional behind it. I'm going to make sure that
as I drink my morning coffee or
my morning tea, or
my morning water or
whatever you're, the thing you
do in the morning,
part of that
is doing a little thing for yourself, for
that mission,
that purpose, so that you can be a little bit more effective as a So that's my wish for you.
And so
I hope you,
Write
down your Meaningful
or the
idea you have right
and maybe you'll
be like me.
you'll do a
hundred podcast episodes trying to get
clearer and more refined in how
you're goingwould be cool, too.
it's a lot [00:14:00] of fun. It's a lot of work. Like I said, it's a lot of work, a lot of stress.
A lot
of, what am I doing with
life sometimes? But it's also
the excitement of
I'm living. the life that I want to
and the life that
I've,
I'm going to die on this hill type of
thing. okay. So that was the first thing. What
is the meaningful revolution? Second question I led with
at the top of this episode is what is a question you can ask
yourself to see if you're on track or And this is one of
of the most powerful personal development questions
that was ever
asked of me.
And I remember sitting in
a hotel conference room, air conditioned, blaring, right?
And the room being
quiet because
the person who was leading this
seminar, this high performance seminar is Brendan Burchard. he asked the audience to journal for five
minutes on, are you living your [00:15:00] And
take a note right
now, if you're
able to and
you're not driving or whatever because of a podcast, but,
Ask
yourself
question and journal on it. Take five minutes. If you're listening to this, pause
and journal for five minutes on
this, because I'll tell
you. How you answer this will be very revealing, right?
There are going to be people that say, Am
I living my truth? And you're like, Yes.
I am
a great parent.
I am doing things that I
want in life. I have meaning every day.
I'm excited to get out of bed
and just live my
life to the
right?
And
awesome.
I'm cheering those
people on. There are people
where
you'll be like, Ugh.
I don't like my response to this. And that was me in
that conference room
sitting
in
that chair, crunched up, writing
out in my journal what my truth was at that moment in my And I didn't like the fact that
I had settled
for what I thought was a safe bet at my [00:16:00] job
at the time.
I didn't
like that
my day
to day was filled with a lot of busy work that wasn't really helping me develop As business professional, as a software engineer, as,
developing anything I was really interested in, I wasn't really feeling like I was contributing
to something, I was helping people,
I was just
a gear going through
the motions, right? And I didn't
like
I thought about, in the
future, when I have kids
someday, because I was
a
young man
at that point, What would my legacy be if
I said I
did the safe thing that made me unhappy for the good chunk of my life? And I did not like that And maybe you're
someone that doesn't like your response like that.
And then the question
is, what would my life look like if
I was building a
legacy, if I was more[00:17:00]
if I was Doing
things every day that I believed in and that were making a difference in people's lives
and that Shifted everything for
me because
that led me to make a decision like okay, I
need to change what's going on
And I need
to do it
with urgency because life is short.
I need to
it in
a way
where
I'm not going to drop all the
obligations I had with like student loans and things
that, right? It wasn't a big deal. Flip the tables, quit your
job and
hope for the best, right? No, there's planning
that needed to go. But from that day forward,
it was evident
that I needed to change
And it was evident that I was going to
do it or die.
And that led to some
amazing things in my life, right?
That decision led
to me
Moving away from that job, starting
a business, learning that I'm bad at starting a business and
having that fail, but it
ultimately [00:18:00] landed me at Apple as a software engineer, which was a dream job. Like someone who, again, didn't have all the formal training, being able to work at an
organization of that caliber, doing things that were
really cool.
was outside
of my realm of possibility, but
it all became possible when
I made that And I had no
expectation that would happen, kinda lucky,
and that's a whole other story for a whole other day.
But, are you living
your truth?
There might be people that are like,
I'm comfortable, Things are good. I don't want to rock the boat.
If I was really living my truth, I'd be doing
this, and this,
but things are okay and
I'm comfortable
and that's fine too.
but
if
you feel restless,
if you
feel like, ah, there's something more that should
here, like this is almost. A call to [00:19:00] action to be like, what would make your life go from good to great to
amazing to
inspirational
into
something that people would admire you for, right? Not that people
would admire you being and
yeah, we could
totally
through
all of the hedges
to that statement, but For yourself, if you're not being challenged, if you're not feeling like
you're serving or helping people, it's going to get
you into a point where you just
aren't satisfied or you're anxious
and restless.
And I've lived that life too. and it's not bad, but it's not good. So what do you want
to do?
I would encourage you to really think through this question. Again.
Are
you living your
All right. So
With all that said, so the first [00:20:00] two questions that we've already
talked about out of four that I listed
the top of
the episode is what is a meaningful revolution, what is the question you should ask yourself
to see if you're on track or not and that your answer
will determine if you are
and what you need to do, that is, are you living your truth? The third
thing I wanted to talk about is the meaningful matrix, right? So this
is
basically if you draw like one line across, it's delay on one side and action
on the other. And if you draw a line vertically,
You have clarity
at the top and uncertainty at the bottom,
And if you are not taking action or delaying, and you're uncertain about what you
want to do,
that
is
in the terms of the Meaningful Revolution, and I'll probably change these as we go forward, but
it's
a
settler, right?
You are going with the flow. Maybe
someone's Hey, you need to advance up the corporate line because that's what people do. [00:21:00] And so you're working to get promoted in an organization that maybe you're not super passionate about. Maybe you're lucky and it's
great organization and things are just cooking. maybe not, but. There's
going with the flow
and trying to do what
you're supposed
to do in air quotes, right?
You're supposed
to
Go to
college. You're supposed to get a
good job. You're supposed
to meet a good spouse You're
to have kids and have the big house and
have the nice cars and
so on and so forth and
there's a lack
of Vision
here, right?
And
so
like I said, you could be very
comfortable You
in
this subtler part, but it's not something that
is really
driving a lot of excitement, a lot of fulfillment, a lot of
happiness per
se, right? It's not intentional.
And
again, what can happen here is you end up going down a path and
and you're like, how
did
I get here?
I never
wanted to be someone that [00:22:00] was this.
Pick. Okay, here's what
I wanted to say.
I'm not someone that
is hounding people every day to pay debt that they don't have money to pay, right? You're a debt Because you just followed the money and you
didn't say, what I really wanted to do
was,
lead people
and help people with getting the
best
health
insurance they could, right?
Something that's more helpful versus just following the money is the And
so.
that's the big risk at just settling and going with the right? If you are trying a lot of
things, trying to figure
out what your thing is, what
purpose is, what your mission is, I call that the
searcher, right?
So you're doing a lot
of things, you're taking a
bunch of
classes, you're doing
personal development, you're trying a bunch of different
hobbies, you're trying a
bunch of
different careers, you're trying to,trying, accumulating knowledge and [00:23:00] experience. You're
and you haven't found your thing yet, right?
And here the big risk is you can get caught in that mode of
like the answer
is outside of you
and You don't have enough right? And certainly if you're young it might be It's a little
bit more valuable to try a bunch of different things than if you've been trying a bunch
things for the last 20 years You
haven't found your thing yet, right?
At some point you need to make the
decision.
and Do the
analysis of
like of everything
that I've tried. You put it in a spreadsheet
and like Everything
that I've learned, everything that I've tried. What are the common
threads
of what I love, right?
And, what I've done this exercise in the past is I like helping
people.
excel. So like leadership type stuff.
I really like
creating
processes and
methodologies. I like[00:24:00]
doing the kind of like industrial engineer thing. If
take a set of steps, like how could you do it quicker? How do you
optimize it? Like
that stuff really helps me. gets my head going in the different jobs that I've done, if I'm learning, if I'm collaborating with people, if
I'm,
or playing
music, right? that's one of the other things, right? If
I, so it doesn't have to
be like a wholly like
bucketed list that
makes sense.
so I like music. I like learning. Like improving processes,
analyzing stuff.
I'm very methodical in that way. That was what was really helpful
throughout my career and all my hobbies and relationships and everything
that I was like reading and interested And so how can I take that and make that into
a career, right?
And
it's maybe if I started a business, you have to create processes in your business. That's fun. You have to always be
learning because the market's always changing. So that's cool.
and so I took
that.[00:25:00]
Taking
that step a couple of times, and now I'm
in my coaching business and doing this
podcast some other stuff. which is fun.
So what is that
list, for you if you're that searcher?
so
that's
the second thing. So if you
have,
if you're delaying,
but you have clarity in
what you
want to do.
so you've figured out okay, I want to learn, I want to help people.
I
want to, do process improvement
and I
want to, do music. Like I just said,
but you don't
ever change,
right? I call these people reactionary
because,
again, they're going
with the flow. You
know
where you want to go, but you just don't know
the way
to get there. And this is when people hire coaches or you get into a community of people
that
are on the path. Or you listen to a podcast like this where people are talking about the things that they've done.
in order to follow those meaningful things in their lives.
So if that's you again, cheering you on, I just want to appreciate [00:26:00] you. I
respect people that are out there doing that. And the
thing that you have to
really do to break through
if you're this reactionary type of person is
to commit. I'm going to do this at this point.
You set a deadline and you either go or you don't go. But.
It's more about working
in to your life, those
things
that are going to help
you create and grow your personal meaningful And then finally, if
you're clear and you're taking action on it, I
you
the revolutionary. you are
the change maker out in the world,
you're a leader, you are, making things
for yourself, but you're also
grounded in service and helping other people,
and so that's when you
change the world.
That's where I
hope to be someday. I think I feel
like I'm more in that reactionary point right now, or there's
always
a ton
more I feel like
I should be doing for my business,
[00:27:00] for my
mission here,
which
is, to
really help people find their
meaningfulThere's that.
Yeah. So
that's
the matrix again. It's the settler, the
searcher, the reactionary, and the revolutionary based on how clear you are on your
meaningful
pursuits
and if you're delaying or taking action. just how I've seen people fall
through in my business the last
five years.
So I thought I'd share that.
OK, on the four questions at the top of the episode
Again, we had, what is the meaningful revolution?
Are
you
living your truth as the question
ask yourself
to see if you're tracking or
not
this meaningful? Matrix with
action and clarity based on it. And
then finally, I just want to say If there's one thing
you take away from this episode or
this podcast or any of
the work that I do It's to have [00:28:00] an
action bias to take steps outside
of your comfort car comfort zone in order to grow as a
person, but also aligned with the things you love,
And I believe in this so
much because I am someone that
get stuck in my head and
I know when
I am delaying,
when I am
thinking about something for too long, and I'm
like,
I
really want to.
Learn how to play music, but
I don't take the lessons, right?
That's when I noticed that in myself. It's okay.
Sign
up for the lesson,
right?
If it's, Hey, I've been thinking about
really shifting
my focus from technology into helping people and,
through coaching. I gotta
have a deadline and make
decision and work towards making sure
that I'll be fine and
family will be fine
when I decide to make that
from
corporate America
into entrepreneurship.
And
so,
[00:29:00] I
am a firm believer in try a bunch
things, iterate, you learn, don't get stuck in searching
for the right answer, but get some experience
and start making some educated guesses on how
to do it. either
get more joy or get more fulfillment or
get more service,
to
others through the things you're doing by improving,
Right.
again, I'm an introvert, so it can take a lot
of energy
when it comes to interacting with people
sometimes, but
it's
really
It served me as a software engineer
to be like, I have this idea, let me try it, see how it works, okay, I can iterate it over and over again. that's
really like the
thing to, to think about is,
how could you take action?
on that meaningful revolution that you hopefully
put on a post it
note and
put by
your computer while we were doing [00:30:00] Because I think if you're living
your truth or you know what your truth is
and you can take little actions every
day that
really can snowball into something amazing
and great for you and for your family So
with all of that folks, if You are interested in engaging a little
bit more with the podcast.
I do have a soft launch for the community space for
the Meaningful Revolution
the Meaningful Revolution Club where we'll talk about how to find your purpose. We'll talk about how to build a business
around an interest if you have that.
so these
are just things that I'm
super interested in. So
I'm leading through example, but
if that's you, please go
to.
ShawnButtner. com backslash M R P for Meaningful Revolution Podcast and
that's in the show notes and sign up for the newsletter
because when you sign up for
that newsletter letter, [00:31:00] you'll get an invitation from me
to join
the soft launch
that'll
happen this month
and then next month, we'll go into a more public
launch
and I'll start charging for
the community and stuff
for some of
the tears.
More on that if you
sign up,
so if you're curious about what that is, make sure if you're not
already on my email list, go to ShawnButter. com slash MRP and
get signed up for the newsletter. You'll get weekly updates
on these podcast episodes.
as they come out, what's going on in
my world, and, so much more.
And you'll
the
invitation to the
soft
launch of the community. So
with that said guys, live with more
purpose out there
and more meaning in
your life. And we'll see you in the next
episode of the Meaningful Revolution
Podcast.
[00:32:00] [00:33:00]
