What Balanced Mastery Looks Like with Rick Griggs

The word that that kept coming up for me when I was reading your information and your bio was the word balance.

What, how? How do you define balance?

I do it in a couple of different ways that are a little non traditional. What I stay away from, and I know sometimes this hurts people's feelings. I stay away from the term work life balance.

Welcome, I'm Dawn Mathis, and this is to your greatness. Every day you give so much of yourself to those you love. Through this podcast, I'll guide you on a journey to reawaken the greatness that lies within you. And each episode, you'll hear incredible stories of transformation for me and my guests that will inspire you to design and manifest a life that is in harmony with your soul's purpose. You are meant to live the life you'd love. Let me show you how.

Welcome everybody. This is to your greatness with Don Mathis, and I am dawn math is the owner and founder of Institute life works. And we have an amazing guest today. This is Rick Gregg's who's joining us. He is the founder of Greg's achievement training and retreats.

And after working in management at the National Semiconductor and Intel, he began his own company in 1983.

teaching people how to jumpstart their humanity to reach high business goals. He instructs on a blend of balance, innovation, and leadership.

Armed with degrees in psychology, French and business behavior analysis, Rick has trained 1000s of people including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees, folks at Stanford University, the American Animal Hospital Association, the American Dental Association, Anheuser Busxch, Cisco Systems, Good Samaritan society and a number of city and county government institutions.

Who Rick is also an award winning author and has written eight books, his seventh book, triumph in teams when a first place Book Award.

In addition to consulting in the United States, Rick has also consulted globally, he speaks fluent French, some German, and apparently enough Spanish to get into trouble. I can relate to the Spanish part and getting into trouble. So so we have a common thread there. So Wow.

Welcome, Rick. You know, there was there was so much to read about you that if I read it all, we would, we would only have about five minutes for content. So I hope I hope what I gleaned gives everyone a feel for the value that Rick can bring to us today. So welcome, Rick. Thank you, Don, it's a pleasure being here and great job picking a few things that might be of interest to the listeners?

Yes, I think so. So here's here's kind of

this is, this is something I really wanted to talk to you about, because one of the topics that I coach into, and a point that I love to talk about with guests, for for the benefit of our listeners is something that that we call the hero's journey. And what that means is that that's a part of life that

something changed for us whether it was catastrophic,

or just a life change, something that changes the trajectory of your life. And and maybe had you go off into a different direction. And so

you alluded in some of your biography to a tragedy you witnessed in the Silicon Valley. And that from there, you developed your world class set of balanced mastery modules. Can you tell us a bit about that, about that story?

You bet on it. In a way it's it's kinda I want to say it's a pleasure to talk about the story, but it was a tragedy at the time and it's still a tragedy in my mind.

But if I keep it short, I have another one jumping off the bridge in France that if it's if this first one's a little bit of a downer, we can add a second one for you for your listeners. This happened many years ago, I was just out of graduate school working at National Semiconductor and Silicon Valley, California. I thought I'd, I thought I'd made it. And with my master's degree, and I was doing the work that I had been studying in school, and one time I had to teach a productivity class to the night shift. So I was teaching all night, I got off work at about five in the morning, got my stuff. And I was ready to walk back across the street to my office in the Human Resources building.

And as 535 45 in the morning, Don, and I see a person going into the building, before sunrise, and I use the name Ruth. And she's going into work early in the morning, and I have seen her there the night before. And I just had to take a detour and walk past her desk that morning. There's nobody else in the building. And I said, Ruth, what are you doing here? so early? I saw you work in late last night. How come you're here so early. She says, Rick, I've got to show that I'm a no nonsense manager that I can keep up. And and at the time, she was a rare female manager in Silicon Valley. And she says, I've got to keep up with the man. I've so much to do. And I remember telling her, well Don't work too hard. And I said goodbye. And I went and put all my stuff at my desk. I went home and slept for the morning or into early afternoon. Because I've worked all night, I got back to the building to the location and keifer Avenue, heart of Silicon Valley. And there's an ambulance in the parking lot. The Doors flung open, and they carried someone down on a gurney and bounced them down the stairs. Now, in a horrible situation. It's funny what you remember, but it was Ruth. She'd had a heart attack at her desk during lunch that day. And they carted her out and the ambulance just kind of slowly drove down the street. And I talked to one of the vice presidents in the lobby, and I said, Isn't this happening a little too often around here.

And he looked down on the he's a big tall guy looked down and he says Greg's used by my last name says, with our numbers, it's not a big issue. And she died that afternoon. I was paralyzed. I was so struck with first the callousness. I know he was talking statistics. But I saw her go into work that morning. And I saw them carry her out at two o'clock that afternoon. And it struck me like a ton of bricks. And that night,

I decided I was going to start a business that would take the balance in your life, the personal side. And the achievement or the mastery are all the skills we want to use to make money and I was just going to try to put them together. And with her losing her life and she wasn't the only one that change my trajectory. It changed my life's work. That was over three decades ago and I have not wavered. Sometimes I wished I could waver and go into another business or something. But I as as of that day, I had a calling for what I call balanced mastery.

Wow. Wow.

Yeah, one of my favorite sayings is that you know, statistics are are just about numbers, but I'm a person. Yes. And however, you're you're right. Corporate America, corporate anywhere. It's it's a numbers game. And

and I'm so sorry that that that happened to Ruth and you're absolutely right. It happens a lot. We we hear about it in coaching where people

have because they're not living their purpose or because they're not balanced. They're actually sick. They're absent. They're not there. They're not well, they don't sleep well. They're not living the life. They would love to live. They check their soul at the door. And

we hear about, we hear stories like that all the time and I'm sure in your work and while you've been doing this

Since 1983, I'm sure you have heard it over and over and over again. It's it's epidemic, it's pandemic. Yeah, wouldn't you agree? I would. And I've seen too many notices on the, on the lobby door that someone

expired over the last few days when I've gone to a company to teach a class, and I find out one of their employees died. And not to stay on the negative part of that. But to me, it's like, in coaching, with Peggy, with my clients, if we can give them a choice, Dawn, if we can say you don't have to pick just the balance and personal stuff, or just the achievement and lots of money in the bank, that you don't have to pick one of those because both of those by themselves are dead ends. In my in my belief system, you have to be a really well rounded person. And that includes the balance side. But it also includes the achievement. And if we can figure out a way to do both, and to teach that we're doing good with our time on this earth. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and and I like

when I received my coaching training, we talked about both and that you don't you don't have to shoot for just achievement at the expense of your health. You can have the life you love and achieve as well. It's a both and not an either or.

I love it. So we're talking here about

people literally dying at work.

So so the the word that that kept coming up for me when I was reading your information, and your bio was the word balance?

What how how do you define balance,

I do it in a couple of different ways that are a little non traditional, what I stay away from, and I know sometimes this hurts people's feelings, I stay away from the term work life balance, only because when I was in the corporate setting, I saw that

a lot of people, they

they didn't take it seriously, they thought it was in some cases, they thought it was a waste of time, from the corporate standpoint, from the corporation's goals and aspirations, they looked at it as something we have to do. And I look at balance as

it's a combination of balance, and achievement. And when those are together, that's the kind of balance I'm talking about. And I think we might chat about this, my mastery circle and a little bit work. Have you picked the priorities in your life. But that's that's also hitting on the kind of balance. Whenever I think of balance, I think you have a responsibility to be a well rounded achiever at the same time. That's what people needed to hear in corporations that it wasn't just work life balance, that there was an achiever component to it, that there was mastery, that we've got to teach balance. But we've also got to teach achievement. So people don't end up working 10 hours a day to get six hours of work done. I mean, that's what gives you the time with your family, the time with your hobbies, the time to play a little piano or to have a koi pond, and still be a great achiever, that that's my belief, when you say balance, I immediately factor in the achievement part of it at the same time.

I hope so might have answers. Yeah, I think so. So what you're saying is working, working smarter, so that it doesn't take you as long to do the job necessarily. Absolutely. And it doesn't take rocket science to learn some good tools. There are people in every profession who were at the top of their game, who are masters in the field. And by the way, real masters, they never say their masters are always achieving. They're always working towards refining their skills. But that component of learning how to do your work better in less time, and I believe in forcing the hours. Anybody can work 12 hour I saw it so much. 1012 hours a day. I just get it

get nervous when I hear that's what someone's doing. When somebody tells me they haven't taken a vacation in years, I just cringe because I know that's going to explode down the road.

The well rounded lifestyle includes the responsibility to be an efficient achiever without killing yourself. And the tools are out there, we've just got to bring them together, and do our marketing well enough that we get a chance to go inside of organizations, or to work with individuals to teach them some of these skills A lot of people think they already know. And unfortunately, I hope I don't get into trouble here. But a lot of men think that Oh, they can't go to that softer side. They can't taught ever say the word balance or be a well rounded human being. They've got to be a super achiever, Superman. And I know that's, that's, that's, it's not a

strict gender issue. But I've just run into a lot of men who don't want to go on, go to the training or learn how to do both that balance and achievement.

Yeah, no, no, no judgment, just my observations. Sure. Well, and you've been doing it long enough. So. So if you see a trend, and, you know, it's, we appreciate you, you pointing that out to us.

So

what, what are some of the most common imbalances? You You see, when you go into a corporation or a business? What What, what's the glaring thing that you can tell us that you see, so maybe it'll make the listeners and myself a little more aware of, hey, maybe we should watch out for this?

Yeah, tell your dog. That's a really insightful question. What I see most often is people being praised for overworking, praised for being fanatical, where there's an award for people who go overboard.

And that becomes the norm, where people leave their cars in the parking lots late at night, over the weekend, or they text and they do things that show that they're working

more than they need to work.

Well,

you know, I think I might have been one of those people when I was in corporate America if I

worked, you know, worked 12 hours or did something like that. And you're right. I mean, that's kind of cultural at many places of business.

is, you know, and it's some it's, it's bragging rights.

So, one of one of the things that, that I noticed that you were talking about in

the balanced mastery was that balance alone doesn't work. What did you mean by that, and what's missing?

Okay.

It's, it gets complicated. But on the employer side, when you just look at balance, the the impression is that people are going to take their time and do things that aren't supporting the organization. on an individual side, when people just look at balance, they're thinking, they're going to lose out on some marketing, on some networking on some client engagement, because they're doing things that make them a fully functioning human being. And that's the, that's a wrong way to look at it. If you taken in a way that you being a well rounded person, helps make you a fully functioning human being, everything else you do, will be better, you will achieve more if you're a well rounded person, but it doesn't just mean goofing off. It doesn't mean just golfing, or just doing hobbies all the time. Anything in excess, of course is going to be dangerous. It's going to create some, maybe some laziness or missed opportunities that balance that back and forth of the achievement side. And the personal well rounded side. To me, that's the magic formula.

formula you have to have both.

So from an employer's perspective, what would you like to see more employers

doing or saying or encouraging from their employees? Okay, another dawn, another excellent question.

It's to me the answer jumps out like a neon sign, set the example of being a well rounded human being, don't there, you go off and go on vacation, let your employees know, you're going to take Friday afternoon off, let your employees know, you're going to go do something to recreate to re energize yourself. And the few the few really good leaders that aren't afraid to do that, I believe I see their businesses mushroom, I see their relationship to their employees, mushroom. Now some people will take advantage, okay, there's a percentage out of every every group. But by and large seeing that the leadership sets the example of being a well rounded human being that that would be the number one thing down that over over my few years, the business would make a huge improvement.

And then the employees would follow suit like It's okay. It's okay to take a day off here and there because even the boss does it. Right, exactly. Right. And they're done. There's so many statistics, there's so many anecdotal stories, so many

well designed experimental studies that show the people who do that the people who take time with their families, the people who take time to exercise who have a hobby, the best leaders I've seen in my in my years. One was that loosens technologies, one was at Hewlett Packard. And these these folks, I mean, one time, the this leader flew back home from a conference we were doing in Reno. So it was about an hour flight, he flew home for his son's birthday party during the conference, and flew back to the conference after he attended his son's birthday party. I mean, that I love that guy, I want to hug him. And he's the kind of example I'd like to see for most employees that are there. They're yearning for an example of good leadership that shows balance and mastery together.

Love it. Love it.

So you alluded to something called the top five priorities principle. Yeah. Can and and I know, we're, we're we don't have a whole lot of time, and I know your courses, you know, weeks long. So

is, is there?

Can you just talk about that the top five priorities principle, just so we have an idea of some of the things that maybe people could start thinking about? Okay, excellent. If If I'm asked Rick, what's the one thing I can do to improve my balance and mastery in my life, what's the one thing I can do? I say, pick your top five priorities, pick your top five priorities and honor them, not three or four, not six, or seven, or eight, top five. And we call that the mastery circle. And I put that in a book called personal wellness many years ago, and I've used it all over the world. If we can get people to at least have five top priorities or goals or aspirations, one that helps you to avoid being a single focus person. single focus, people cause trouble. And they caught they, they spew it on everybody around them. It does lots of damage. So this forces you to make sure you have five different priorities. And what you start to learn is that it's like the other four, you've got one big one, maybe making lots of money being successful, but the other four are like a life vest for you. When the world gets tough, when when you feel your self esteem sinking, when you feel that you're insignificant in this big world, especially with the social media. When you have those other four priorities, maybe it's piano, maybe it's cycling, maybe it's travel, it might be a significant other or

Might be family as one, when you have the other four, something magical happens with your personality, with your batteries being recharged. And with how you talk, you tackle what you do for a living, I will guarantee that person will be a different person. When they focus on their top five priorities. We call it the mastery circle,

the mastery circle.

Well, that kind of ties in with the last question I was going to ask you, and I think you just answered it. What can what can our audience do? A step that we can all take? And it sounds like, do some thinking and come up with those five priorities.

And

I also wanted to say that

we're going to have your contact information and how people can learn more about

your mastery programs. We'll have those in the speaker's notes for people so that they can they can find you and access this this brilliant work of yours. Oh, thank you, jack, I think I might be one of your next students. I'm just very, very enthralled with with this information. And

I think we need to get the word out to, to a lot more of, of our industries and our corporations because

I I don't miss corporate America at all.

Yeah. And it would, it would be great to get in there. Yeah. Yes. Do I have time for a 32nd story? You do. Okay. To balance the one we started with with Ruth. I want to tell you about it when your listeners about jumpstarting your humanity. And I'll squish this down. I was in France. I'd lived there for a while. And then I was camping. And I went through this town called La Habra. And the Sand River Runs Through It. And there's a big bridge going over the river. And I see this kid up on the bridge. And he's, he's getting his nerve up to jump off this bridge. And he jumps off the bridge and goes through the air hits the water and comes out. And yeah, he said, I ran up to him. I said, What did you just do? You scared me half to death. And he looks up and he says you want to see me do it again. Sometimes you just have to have fun. And the kid jumped off the bridge again. And I it was contagious. So I gave him my camera, my French francs at the time my car keys, and I went to the top, I looked off and I said I can't jump off, I'm bigger than he is I will die and go out to the English Channel. I finally got my nerve up and I jumped off the bridge, and I hit the water I came back up. And I was sizzling. I was sizzling, laughing like this 12 year old kid. And what I learned that day that I tried to get across to people is sometimes we've got to jumpstart the humanity in our lives. It's been covered up with all kinds of work and duty and taxes and pandemics. We've got to do something that jumpstart that humanity that we were born with. And it sounds like in your work you you are trying to get that across to people in my work. And there's a 12 year old kid that taught me how to be human again. And by jumping off a bridge.

Wow.

I love that. I bet you felt alive after you jumped in came up and oh, I lived through it. So.

Yeah, wow. Well, you know, I think I think being a kid and watching kids can remind us about jumpstarting our humanity by being more childlike. Oh,

yeah. Wow, man, I wish we had like two hours because I'm just enjoying this so much.

And unfortunately, we have to we have to sign off. Rick, I will be in touch with you. Because I want to talk more with you. And I'm certain that some of our audience will be reaching out to you as well. Thank you so much for your wisdom, your talent, your brilliance, your heart, and your time. Thank you so much done. It's It's a pleasure when I get to talk about this. It honors Ruth from many many years ago and I pledge that I will spend my life honoring her.

Well, I I think Ruth knows that.

I think she sees you. She hears you. She's got your back. And I so appreciate you and and, and your story about Ruth and and about the 12 year old boy.

Well thanks everyone for joining us. This has been to your greatness with Don Mathis and with my guest, Rick Griggs.

Thank you for joining me on to your greatness.

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