Imagine Yourself Creating The Ultimate Life Plan w/Author, Speaker & Influencer, Craig Sroda
- Lanee and Sandy
- Jun 24, 2019
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 21, 2024
What’s the first thing you should grab when you have to put together one of those complex build-it-yourself pieces of furniture? What’s the first thing you should grab when you see a strange light blinking on your car’s dashboard? What’s the one thing you wish you could grab when your baby is crying and you have absolutely no idea why?
Maybe these days, you’d hit up Google, but back in the day, you would probably open an instruction manual!
After getting the opportunity to speak with Author, Speaker, Influencer Craig Sroda, it seems apparent that there’s one more question that should be added to that list: What’s the one thing you should grab when trying to develop your best self, discover your ultimate purpose and live with more intention?
The answer is…an Ultimate Manual.
And, after this week’s enlightening episode, we ordered our own copy of The Ultimate Manual to Living a Meaningful Life, by Craig Sroda, and our overall assessment is that there’s an unexpected fun factor when going on a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness. It’s fun doing the quick activities, answering the customized questions, and reading the nuggets of advice. You’ll find out some things about yourself that will surprise you!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:
Life can throw a lot at you, but imagine if your life were different, better, not because of what's coming at you, but because of what's coming from you. Let's get there together. Join us
Lanée Blaise [00:00:12]:
Sandy imagine yourself. Hello, everyone. I'm Lanee.
Sandy Kovach [00:00:16]:
And This is Sandy, and today, we are imagining what?
Lanée Blaise [00:00:20]:
We are imagining seeing ourselves as creative, Quality craftsman. And we're not crafting houses or furniture or statues, but we are crafting life plans Sandy purposeful lives.
Sandy Kovach [00:00:36]:
That sounds deep.
Lanée Blaise [00:00:37]:
Yeah. And that is deep. That's why for such a deep, Awesome imagination thing that we've got going on here. We wanted to bring in a deep, awesome author to help us to navigate these waters. And today, we have Craig Sroda to imagine ourself because he's an author, an in demand speaker Who has made it his mission to encourage people to start living with intention. In fact, his goal is to influence 100,000 plus people to create their own life plan by 2022. And his new book he's got a new book out to help us do that. The ultimate manual to living a meaningful life, and it is rich with these ways to discover our purpose, and we want to thank you, Craig, for joining us.
Craig Sroda [00:01:25]:
Thank you for having me.
Sandy Kovach [00:01:26]:
So where do we dive in on this?
Sandy Kovach [00:01:28]:
I mean, it the way you have it laid out, it's almost like a business plan. And I think didn't you start by doing business plans?
Craig Sroda [00:01:36]:
It is like a business plan. And, you know, after running a Microsoft consulting firm for 20 years, I learned a lot about people's personality, business planning, you know, accountability, and self awareness was the biggest takeaway that I learned When I was hiring people so I really start digging into that quite a bit because I figured out if you hire people on their strengths area where they're naturally strong and gifted, They're happier. Everything's more productive. You have a better culture. I kinda rolled that in after 18 years doing business planning and technology planning for companies Into a life Lanee. Just lord fulfilling and living on purpose.
Lanée Blaise [00:02:12]:
You're treating this element of finding your purpose in a very Structured and good professional way. Because in the beginning of your book, you really get right to it. You make sure that the people reading your book Sign a contract to themselves that they will start living life with intention. Did you find that there were just lots of people out there drifting aimlessly and Look up years or decades later and regret that they never took time to search for their purpose.
Craig Sroda [00:02:39]:
Well, it's one of the things that people don't even think about. They're so busy in providing Sandy jobs That they just start working and it's like all of us. We fall into work Sandy we start working, and you don't take a step back to think about what you really wanna do. The biggest Regret people have in life is doing what everybody told them to do versus what they wanted to do, and that is the number 1. And so I learned a lot about business planning and technology planning because I did that for a long time, and I'm like, man, I'm gonna put the same strategy for people in their life. Because the 1 page strategy plan is a business side of it. Now it's the 1 page Lanee plan. It's your mission, your purpose, your strength's right in your faith because if Your plans get too long, they don't get executed.
Sandy Kovach [00:03:20]:
You have it in bite sized pieces. And I think the way the book is structured too is you take people 1 step at a time. The first being discovering themselves, really. Right?
Lanée Blaise [00:03:30]:
Yeah. Because you mentioned that a lot of people, there's a whole lot more that you need to know about yourself. Is that really the case you found?
Craig Sroda [00:03:37]:
Absolutely. Self awareness is the best gift you can give anybody and give yourself. One of those things that from love language to your Natural five strengths that you're wired with that don't change to some of the business disc and the 16 personalities Sandy all those assessments are really just deep diving on yourself so you know more about yourself. And a lot of us don't get that affirmation. You know? I mentor a lot of kids when they're going to college, and I have been. I have 3 daughters. You know, I was helping their friends out, and I have them do that 16 personalities test, which is 616personalities.com, which I would highly recommend. It's a free modern day Myers Briggs.
Sandy Kovach [00:04:10]:
I heard of that 16 personalities.com that looks really cool. What are people looking for with that specifically?
Craig Sroda [00:04:16]:
Who they are and they get affirmations from college decisions, from career changes. The more you know about that, the more you make decisions through life, you just will live intentionally. And you'll have this happiness factor for you also.
Lanée Blaise [00:04:26]:
I love it. I kinda think of your ultimate manual as Because it's so easy to read Sandy there's so many excellent passages and personal stories and, like you said, these self questions and Quizzes and exercises and pieces of advice. I wanna ask anyone who's listening to this right now. If you got a brand new job And the employers prepared a manual, and all you had to do was read it. It gave all the details and all the particulars Of exactly how to be wildly successful in that job and position. Would you not read it? And that's what I feel like with Craig Sroda. He's offering an ultimate life manual. It gives you all the details and all the particulars exactly how to be wildly successful in your life.
Lanée Blaise [00:05:12]:
Why would anyone not want to take that step and find their personal mission, their life plan, their purpose?
Sandy Kovach [00:05:20]:
Yeah. Because it is all such great information.
Craig Sroda [00:05:23]:
And it's a workbook. I specifically made it a workbook because so many people read things, but The application and execution are the key. I go through some tips and tricks on executing the plan, keeping yourself Accountable monthly and quarterly checkups Sandy getting accountability partner to question your actions.
Sandy Kovach [00:05:41]:
Yeah. And another thing that I find really interesting is the EQ. And I have heard that term before. Not IQ, but EQ, emotional intelligence. Why is that so important? And do you feel like a lot of us lack that?
Craig Sroda [00:05:53]:
It's a good thing to know and get your score. People refer EQ, EI. I started doing that when I was hiring. You know, I worked at a few companies here helping them get their plans together, I started doing that when I did interviews, like how much empathy do they have, how what's their social skill, so where and once you know it, you can improve those if you want. Some of the the other assessment is just who you are, Sandy then you wanna capitalize on them. But it's really important to know that because if you're really, really weak in empathy, You should take note of that because that could get you in trouble.
Sandy Kovach [00:06:21]:
So okay. We have these different quizzes. You have was it the DISC? The personality thing, is that separate from the DISC?
Craig Sroda [00:06:28]:
Yeah. This is used a lot in business, but it's good to know. It tells you what not to do. It tells you where you should go Between this disc and the 16 personalities, which is Myers Briggs, those 2 really give you a deep dive. And the what I like about the Myers Briggs on our 16 personalities, it takes about 5 minutes to do, and I have not had that be wrong on anybody yet. You know? It is just really, really cool. And, you know, Especially with the younger generation that I've entered, all they have is 5 minutes. They wanna have some instant gratification, but they also get that affirmation of who they are, and that helps with the trajectory of their life.
Sandy Kovach [00:07:04]:
Now I definitely want people to go to the website and check it out and your and see your book, but can you give us just, like, A snapshot for people who are listening of what some of those personality traits are.
Craig Sroda [00:07:14]:
Well, with 60 personalities, you know, are you extrovert? Are you introvert? How much do you react or do you respond? Are you assertive? Are you turbulent? Those type of things. And what I like about it, It gives you people that are like that also. And then it gives you it talks about potentially some career options that you might wanna consider.
Lanée Blaise [00:07:32]:
Yeah. Because There's a lot in this book. There's so many layers besides even just the career aspect. Your book discusses something that we were kinda talking about in a recent podcast. Your book says, specifically, life is all about relationships, and even finding your purpose Might be affected by kinda who you hang out with. How does all that affect the quest for your purpose? How important is it, the relationships that you keep, the people that surround you As far as your career goals and your life goals and things like that, how does that work?
Craig Sroda [00:08:04]:
Well, it's super important. You know, the principle that you're the average of 5 people you hang around with the most. I wonder one of the blogs I wrote. I gave, just a cheat sheet of every 10 years, lift out your friends, your 5 closest friends that you hung around with every 10 years and see how they influence. You know, if they play tennis, you probably start playing tennis. Those kind of things, it's really important to pay attention to that As well as you should be the dumbest person in one of the groups you hang around with. You know? You don't always wanna be the smartest person in the room because you're not learning. It's tough Sandy humbling at the same time, but we should exercise our humble bone.
Lanée Blaise [00:08:38]:
That's what stretches you and probably pulls you and leads you to the next level, being around others who can influence us. Right?
Sandy Kovach [00:08:47]:
otherwise we stay in our comfort zone, which is that's a chapter of your book. Right? Questioning the comfort zone.
Craig Sroda [00:08:54]:
Well, you don't grow in your comfort zone. That's for sure because it's comfortable. Right?
Sandy Kovach [00:08:58]:
It's comfortable, and we like it. and we wanna lay around in it sometimes.
Craig Sroda [00:09:02]:
Right. And it's okay to hang in there once in a while, but you should be, uncomfortable 20, 30% of your life that you you need to be pushing yourself.
Sandy Kovach [00:09:10]:
20 to 30%.
Craig Sroda [00:09:12]:
Oh, yeah.
Lanée Blaise [00:09:12]:
But see, now that leads me to people out there. What do you say to a person who is afraid to do all this self discovery, afraid of what they're gonna find, or even just afraid to take that first step towards their purpose.
Craig Sroda [00:09:25]:
I get it. Some people say they are, But wouldn't you wanna be happier? Because you're gonna have this natural happiness knowing that either you're on the right path or you need to make a change.
Sandy Kovach [00:09:34]:
People do have a natural fear of getting out of their comfort thrown and maybe finding out more about their selves. Maybe they're afraid of the process, but it seems like you're making the process easy, and it's something that they can do by themselves in the comfort of their own home. You can't beat a 5 minute quiz. Even I could do that.
Craig Sroda [00:09:52]:
And I think you should. Yes. If you give me some feedback on my blogs, like, once you do it, it's eye opening how it nails you.
Sandy Kovach [00:10:00]:
So what are some of the stories that you've had? You say you get feedback
Craig Sroda [00:10:05]:
back on your blog. Have you had some interesting stories? Oh, yeah. I mean, people change their careers. When I did my 1st life plan, I sold my company of 18 years. It was, you know, one of the larger Microsoft Consulting friends in Northern Indiana.
Sandy Kovach [00:10:14]:
That's huge.
Craig Sroda [00:10:14]:
Basically, at the end of the day, you're understanding your strengths and your priorities, and then you're reconciling to your actions. And I'm like, wow. I'm way out of whack.
Lanée Blaise [00:10:22]:
You mentioned something else kinda that ties to that in the book too about how we want to be mindful that we're not wasting time than wasting our life. You even have a powerful quote by Paulo Coelho. One day you'll wake up, And there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted, so just do it now.
Craig Sroda [00:10:41]:
Time is our only nonrenewable resource we have, so you gotta Cherish it like crazy. It's good to unplug. You know, part of the, book is having replenishment cycles, quarterly getaways, something that Fuels you. You gotta be mindful of that also because you're out there grinding it. It's important to get refueled, and you need to know what refueled you. People put too much stake in just work. When they Lanee jobs or whatever their identity is tied to that job, and I had to unwind that, which was very real. You know, I started my company when I was 28, And when I was always the CEO owner, I'm like, when I sold it, I'm like, oh, who am I? You got your 5 domains of life, and your job is one of them.
Craig Sroda [00:11:19]:
So you guys once you get the balance Sandy the other percentages aligned in your balance of life, if something crazy happens at work, you're not So impacted and so distraught over it because, you know, it's not everything.
Lanée Blaise [00:11:33]:
It's not all of who you are. Now that makes me wonder your own personal purpose, Craig, is this your purpose now to help others with their purpose?
Craig Sroda [00:11:42]:
Yeah. That's that's why the goal of a 100,000 people, I think the ripple effect is real. I've seen it happen too many times where People at work, they're not happy because they're not in their strength zone or their natural wiring. So they're mad at work. They go home mad. They impact Their wife, their kids, then the community gets impacted as opposed to they're happy at work. They're impacting them positively. They're making a positive contribution To work and people around them, and then they go home happy.
Craig Sroda [00:12:09]:
So you really start impacting the family, the community, and the ripple effect. So, I think the world could be a lot better with people living in their, strengths area, doing what they should be doing.
Lanée Blaise [00:12:20]:
Everybody taking upon themselves to know themselves, Create their personal missions, create their life plans, do what they were meant to be, then the world is more productive because everybody else individually is more productive. Correct?
Craig Sroda [00:12:32]:
Correct. And you got this natural happiness.
Sandy Kovach [00:12:35]:
So the wheel of life is what you call you kind of alluded to that. Is that the 5 regions that you were talking about? You have work as only one part?
Craig Sroda [00:12:42]:
Yeah. The 5 domains of life, your personal, your family, your job or vocation, Sandy your community, and your faith, or whatever your belief system is, those are your main 5. I've created a a Wheel to add is a couple extra ones, the romance, the fun factor, because I people don't think fun. I mean, that's one of my core values is to have fun. If I'm not having fun, I'm not doing something right.
Sandy Kovach [00:13:02]:
Right. Because you're going up fishing now, right, as we're talking?
Craig Sroda [00:13:05]:
Yes. I am going up north here at Wisconsin to do some northern fishing, and that's Kind of my replenishment cycle and get my meet my brother up here and have a little fun.
Sandy Kovach [00:13:13]:
And you say that people don't emphasize that enough in their life.
Craig Sroda [00:13:17]:
Yes. The replenishment cycle, What is refueling you? Everybody's grinding it out. Hopefully, you're having a little bit of fun doing it, but you can say, okay. A quarterly getaway or Once every other month, I'm going fishing with my brother or our quarterly getaways with my wife on a beach or whatever. Whatever replenishes you and refills you so you can get back, Keep the energy because it's energy management and time management. It's not just time management. It's you gotta manage your energy also.
Sandy Kovach [00:13:43]:
We call it bandwidth. Yeah.
Craig Sroda [00:13:46]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of terms for it, but they all matter. Right?
Lanée Blaise [00:13:50]:
Yeah. They all too. It seems that this manual Can help men and women and young people and seniors and teens because I think it's all helping to eliminate Some of those regrets. I didn't do this. I wish I'd done that. Yeah. And I got that message a lot in your book as well.
Craig Sroda [00:14:09]:
That's kind of a main thing for me is my mission is to help people be better than I thought they could be. So everything I do is kinda wrapped around that. And then Just be purposeful with your life because you don't wanna have regret if you don't have to, and that means you gotta consciously think about it. Right?
Sandy Kovach [00:14:23]:
Absolutely. So we'll get some takeaways here in a couple minutes. We have a little segment called takeaway time, and Lanee will cover some of the things for takeaways. Feel free to chime in as well. But before we do that, obviously, I wanna give everybody the where they can buy their book, your book, your blog, whatever for info that you have that you wanna throw out there to help people to reach your goal. How many thousands of people now do you have?
Craig Sroda [00:14:47]:
I got work to do, but I wanna hit a 100,000. So I'm just starting the journey out. I know there's people. I gotta put a calendar on my web and know all that, but it's on Amazon .com, so you can buy it there. I have My blog site, I'd blog on Wednesdays because Sroda means Wednesday in Polish. Oh. Craigsroda.com is my blog site. The ultimate manual.com is where the, book and where you can get some free downloads.
Craig Sroda [00:15:09]:
If you wanna check out the 1 page life plan that I created, the key thing is The eulogy in the middle across the 5 domains of your life, how do you wanna remember be remembered? That took me months to figure that one out, but it makes you look forward Across all those domains so you can minimize your regret. So what are people gonna say at your funeral personally, your family, your job? And that'll help keep you aligned.
Lanée Blaise [00:15:32]:
That's true. You're if you're focusing on how you want to be remembered and how your legacy will be pushed out and expressed, You'll make conscious efforts to make that happen before the big day comes that you're not here anymore.
Craig Sroda [00:15:45]:
Your legacy can be infinite. People you influence think about it. If you're gone and somebody comes up to somebody else that you influence, they say, how'd you get to be who you are and they say your name? It's kind of a cool influence and infinite game that keeps going, so you wanna be conscious About your actions.
Sandy Kovach [00:16:00]:
Yeah. Ripple effect. We don't think about that nearly enough.
Lanée Blaise [00:16:03]:
Yeah. We don't. I just cannot encourage everyone enough to check him out at craigschroda.com. That's craigsroda.com And also Amazon for the books. Now strangely enough, for our takeaway time that we always have, I actually just wanna throw it right back at our guest, Craig, are you willing to give us a little parting gift? Just 1 juicy, common piece of good solid advice to help anyone who's listening today.
Craig Sroda [00:16:37]:
You don't plan to fail, you fail the plan.
Sandy Kovach [00:16:40]:
That's easy to remember too.
Lanée Blaise [00:16:41]:
Drop the mic. Yeah. Yes. So we, again, want to thank you so much for joining us. We really do want to help you reach your goal of the 100,000. And So any of us listening just really, really focus in on everything that we've shared today and see how meaningful it is. But in the end, imagine yourself thinking of this one life that you've been given as the ultimate road trip Where you get to drive around aimlessly or you get to drive directly to your desired destination, or you can even do a little bit of both. But you now are equipped with an ultimate manual for your ultimate road trip.
Lanée Blaise [00:17:26]:
Imagine yourself reading it, Discovering your purpose and finally hitting the open road with your life plan.
Sandy Kovach [00:17:36]:
Thanks for listening. Now we'd like to hear from you. Got an idea for the show? Wanna share your story or just say hello? Make sure you connect for this. You can do that at imagine yourself podcast.com, and we'll talk to you again next time when we have something new to imagine.
