Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 388: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Better

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Episode 388: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Better · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  Success is really just the pursuit of a worthy goal and the pursuit of happiness. And I think our job is to make sure in America that we continue to provide that opportunity for you to pursue it based on your own framework, based on what's important to you, based on your motivations, how you're wired, what inspires you.
• 0:25
  That's that's America at its best.
• 0:31
  A and, hello and welcome to the Growth Project. This is no louder.
• 0:34
  Joined today with Anthony a Libra on
• 0:36
  the growth project. Anthony, thanks for coming on board. I look forward to our conversation.
• 0:40
  Happy to be here. It should be a fun one.
• 0:42
  Yeah. And so if you are new to the Growth Project podcast, it is something AMP we've been doing now since 2017. And our goal what is, is to find ways to help you be better and pursue better.
• 0:54
  And the podcast is one way we try to do that to bring information or current events to current topics,
• 0:59
  through a lens of a performance psychology mindset.
• 1:03
  hope is that you will find the information relevant and,
• 1:06
  encouraging in your life,
• 1:08
  to help you be better for the things that matter most and help you be better for the people that matter most.
• 1:12
  And so, Anthony, we got a big birthday celebration coming up
• 1:15
  Happy 250th to America. And really just want to take this chance in this time to discuss a little bit about what that means
• 1:25
  and kind of what we believe in America, what was founded for, what it might look like in today's times and how it's evolved and what are some of the challenges we continue to face in our young country, even though 250 years is a pretty big milestone
• 1:38
  grand scheme of the world, it's a pretty small stamp in time.
• 1:41
  And so when you first date 250 years, Happy Birthday America. What comes in your mind? What do you feel in your heart?
• 1:50
  It's hard for me. You know, who's approaching their 30th birthday. So even, you know, multiply that by eight, so to speak, and to
• 1:57
  it's incredible to think since it's, you know, 1776 when, when we, when we got our independence there, how far we come, just how much we've developed and evolved as a society.
• 2:10
  And, you know, this idea of we were founded on these ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And a lot of those manifestations, a lot of those issues, a lot of those challenges, you know, more broadly, obviously they sound and look quite a bit different in the year of 2026, but they're still things we aspire towards.
• 2:27
  There's still things that there's still things that as a society, we begin to work towards and to hold ourselves accountable to. So it's it's truly a fascinating look, rewinding of the clock, if you will. When we think back to 250 years ago of what it looked like versus what it is now, but at its core, there's still a lot of similarities.
• 2:46
  There's still a lot of recurring themes.
• 2:50
  Yeah, I think that's so well said to me. I kind of where I've been going in the last couple of weeks, thinking about 250 years and thinking about, what was happening in America this time. And,
• 3:00
  the courage it took for the Founding Fathers, these small 13 colonies, to come together, to unify themselves, to, to say, here's what we really believe.
• 3:11
  so I think what inspired them when I read and think about the words of how the Declaration of Independence really started, and I think when I was young, I just even overtook or overlooked a Declaration of Independence.
• 3:25
  I thought it was just some artifact that, you know, you read about this, maybe if you go to Washington, you get to see. But it was so much bigger than that that that it was an ideal that they had a vision for, of here's what we really believe to be true. And so when you listen to these words, I think that's what we really want to say.
• 3:48
  Okay. What does that really look like in today's world where if you got it right, where we got it wrong, and how do we continue to live with this conflict and the tension between what we aspire to and what is reality for all people? So that Declaration of Independence starts?
• 4:02
  We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And so when I read that, and then I think for the lens of what it looked like, and I think to me, what does it mean today?
• 4:26
  I think that's what America at its best hopefully exhibit and hopefully believes. And so that's what we when I think about 250 years, the courage, the vision, the talent is, a civil war in between, the the amount of challenges we're facing in today's world. This podcast is not meant to overlook and minimize those. But how do these principles continue to be?
• 4:54
  I think your word is best aspired to and lived out on a consistent basis.
• 5:00
  and I think you hit it right in the head when we were talking about what did it look like when these founding fathers actually sat down and put pen to paper? And in a world without ChatGPT and Copilot and Claude and the internet, like, they were able to sit down and and brainstorm and come together and really come to this idea that it's bigger than us.
• 5:19
  Right? Like the, the ideals of America are bigger, that we are bigger in the sum of our parts. Right? It is. It is really that simple. There. So that idea like when we talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we talk about the modern challenges that we look at because as you said, right. It would be ignorant of us to go, we're doing like we're doing everything right, like it's just not the case.
• 5:39
  But at the same time, we can look at we can take a hard look in the mirror, we can go, okay, we might not be where we want to be right now, but that doesn't mean we can not take the awareness we have to move towards it. Yeah, an individual level to move towards that and to continue to.
• 5:55
  Okay. What does it look like for me to live my truth in terms of these ideals? And I think then how do we use that within us? And I think when you go back to those founding fathers and putting their name on that declaration, you know, legend has it, I have verified this. And John Hancock, you know, he wrote his name so big, knowing that he could be persecuted and killed for that.
• 6:20
  But he didn't want them in the state that he put his name on that paper. Yeah. And so to me, the courage and conviction it took and I know you know, I love quotes, but one about Billy Graham that said, courage is contagious. On one race all takes a stand. The spines of others are stiffened. And so this little group of colonies, this, group of founding fathers, believed in something so great that they were willing to sacrifice everything their lives, their family, to not only be a part of something greater, but to build something greater than themselves.
• 6:57
  They were willing to take on Great Britain because they believed in these things so much.
• 7:02
  And so if we think about, okay, putting that into perspective today, and we break down those ideals in terms of life, liberty and the pursuit, if we like, we talk about a core values of implies we want you to create core values. What do we say? What do they mean? What do they look like? That's what's most important.
• 7:25
  And so we had to kind of break down these ideals. You know life when you think about what they spoke on when we guarantee these unalienable rights, life. What does that mean to you.
• 7:35
  Yeah. And it gets it. It gets at this idea of inherent dignity and protection of individuals. Right. That is it at its core. Right there. When we talk about the what it means in 2026,
• 7:46
  this idea that who you are as an American, regardless of all the demographics, any demographic you want to throw in there, you have that right to life.
• 7:55
  You have that that protection, if you will, is covered. It comes with the certificate, the birth certificate of being an American and and having that citizenship.
• 8:04
  Yeah. I think even, you know, we can talk later on or about what it looks like is even for the immigrants that are coming to America, that we still treat you with a certain level, ideally with a certain level of respect as a human beings.
• 8:19
  That's what that's what I always say, Anthony, imagine what our world would look like if we all give each other permission to be human,
• 8:25
  and what that means is that we just we just believe in the dignity of people. And so we treat everyone, regardless of their beliefs, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless of, what their values are, that we respect you and see the dignity of human humanity within you.
• 8:47
  And it's a constant chase, right. It's always something that is. I don't think there's ever going to be a moment in time where we're like, hey, guess what? We're we're 100% we're back in 1000 here. Right? Every single American that exists in the United States practice does this to the fullest degree, to the to the best of their abilities, to where we live in this ideal, this utopia,
• 9:08
  But when we at an individual level can begin to think about that and go, okay, this life aspect, this inherent dignity and respect and protection, regardless of demographic, what am I doing today to help live that, to help bring that to life, to help operationalize it. That's really what we're getting at here. And I think each one of these are it's so easy, I think in this world today to say, well, will they this or they that we label other people, we speak the same words.
• 9:38
  But you and I are probably speaking to ourselves as much as anybody else. Well, what does that look like in our life? How are we treating each other with dignity? How are we having empathy and seeing with your eyes and hearing with your ears and and feeling with your heart like that's. Can I get on the same page?
• 9:56
  That's that's what the ideal stands for. And so we think about this inherent dignity of people. Now Liberty, what does that really mean and what might that look like in today's world. Yeah. And I mean, you can't have a conversation about liberty without have a conversation about freedom, right? When we talk about that freedom of thought, the freedom of speech, the freedom of opportunity, they're right.
• 10:19
  And they're they blend so beautifully together that harmony that exists between what we just talked about, life versus that liberty aspect. Right. And it's it's a it's this idea that we can disagree, like we can have opposing takes with one another. And so I think we'll probably get into a little bit later about having those difficult conversations. But at the end of the day, the beauty of being an American is that I can engage in free speech.
• 10:42
  I don't have to live in a censored world. I can I can put my opinion out there. And maybe there's people with pitchforks outside my door because I put that opinion out there, but I still reserve that right. I still have that ideal to seek out the opportunities. Otherwise I might not be able to if I was in other countries.
• 10:58
  Yeah. I mean, the whole reason I you look back at what really drove the Founding Fathers is, you know, no taxation without representation, right? Like, like like we wanted a voice and how we govern ourselves
• 11:13
  And we're free to challenge the status quo.
• 11:15
  We're freedom to to be who we were created to be. That's I think, the idea and I think how much what do we talk so much about? The foundation of a high performing team is psychological safety. Yeah. And and imagine that they didn't have that control probably 250 years ago. They probably were talking about psychological safety. But what they meant is if you're created equal and we respect you as a human being and we all of and then we also give you the freedom to speak your mind.
• 11:45
  Yeah. And so then I think the last one is so well worded and I think it's one well, we don't do well on life. We don't do well. And, and liberty all the time. I think we struggle with this pursuit of happiness. It is not guarantee happiness. There's no guarantee that if you come to America, you're going to achieve the American dream that you were guaranteed, this success, you were guaranteed happiness.
• 12:12
  You were guaranteed the right to pursue it. And I think that, to me is what is what motivates us.
• 12:19
  We talk all the time around. Success is really just the pursuit of a worthy goal and the pursuit of happiness. And I think our job is to make sure in America that we continue to provide that opportunity for you to pursue it based on your own framework, based on what's important to you, based on your motivations, how you're wired, what inspires you.
• 12:47
  That's that's America at its best.
• 12:50
  And if we take the other side of this, right. Because I know there's a lot of, there's a lot of talking points about liberty, right? There's a lot of divisiveness when we talk about liberty and even the pursuit of happiness more broadly. But if we if we ixnay those right out of our ideals, what would we be able to get better as a country?
• 13:10
  I don't think we would be able to, if we weren't able to, to have an engage in conversation, to truly have freedom of thought, speech and opportunity, as well as the right to pursue happiness. As you put it right, it isn't like, I'm going to wave my magic wand here the moment you step on American soil. Guess what?
• 13:25
  You're going to feel happy. Dopamine is going to fire. Serotonin is going to fire like it's not. Unfortunately, that's not the case. All right.
• 13:31
  But to that end, however you want to live it, right? That's the that's the aspiration. That's the ideal of it.
• 13:38
  And it's it. In today's day and age, it is a difficult realization sometimes to come to with all of the noise, with all of the distractions, with all of the extraneous variables that are outside of our control. Also, often to almost go back in, okay, what do I want out of this life? What do I want out of this life that I can get out of America?
• 13:59
  What? To me, that pursuit of happiness leans on an individual responsibility and some autonomy. We bring in the kind of all the all the new theories of motivation around self-determination theory. To me, what I like about the pursuit of happiness. I know you know, that's something right up your alley is I have to have some personal responsibility for my life.
• 14:20
  I have to have some sense of personal agency, that I have the autonomy to make those decisions, to be within a organized civilization and society. There's, you know, creativity without structure leads to chaos. Creativity within it is what really leads to freedom. But as long as I play the rules of the game and live in a civilized society, then I have the freedom to pursue my goals, pursue my dreams.
• 14:43
  And there's an internal locus of control versus an external locus of control that you know what is best for me, that you can decide how to live my life, that you decide how I spend my money, that you decide what I get to own. That to me is is at our core. It is. Yeah. And I mean, speaking of self-determination theory, right.
• 15:03
  Like we talk about this idea of intrinsic motivation, right? The things that you find inherently enjoyable. One of the most beautiful parts of that pursuit of happiness is that differs from person to person. Right? One of the ways we we teach through this idea of motivation, one of my favorite ways, as I'll ask people the simple question, I'll ask a group, people, why do you run right?
• 15:21
  Why do you go for runs here and there? Like whether it be mornings, afternoons, whatever it may be, and you'll have individuals go, I hate running, I never want to run like it's awful. My knees hurt, my feet hurt. It's the middle of June. We're almost in July. It's so hot outside. And then we go to the other side of the room and they go, I love running.
• 15:37
  I don't even know who I would be without running, right? I don't even know what that would look like in my day to day if I didn't have that. And it's not like, you know, Milton myself are going to tell you, okay, you have to run. Like in order for you to be happy. You have to run like, no, that's your individualized.
• 15:50
  Yes. Right. So when we especially when we talk about this life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, this isn't a product. This is a framework. There's a framework for you to operate within and find your own truth and find ways you bring these ideals to life to maximize your well-being, your satisfaction, how fulfilled you feel in your day to day.
• 16:10
  And I think that's so important because, you know, to me, Viktor Frankl, you know, I love him and his man search for meaning. And I think about this quote all the time about the pursuit of happiness again. And this an ideal. Here's what I'm going to strive for. Don't aim for success or success like happiness must ensue. It cannot be pursued, and it only does as the unintended side effect of submitting to a Kohl's or a person greater than yourself, than along where you'll find success and happiness because you're too busy to be looking for it.
• 16:39
  Yeah. And so when we're living these out on a consistent basis, and we're taking that personal responsibility to define our own success to to pursue our own happiness, to have the freedom to, to live according to what I believe and think about the power associated with that, just the courage to live like, here's what we believe we're going to have the courage to live these out so we can get, you know me, I get all fired up and inspired about this idealistic view of the world.
• 17:07
  But then when we come to the crashing reality, when there's so much tension between what we state, what we really believe, and how we actually show up. And so how do we manage? I always think when our values come into conflict, how do we navigate that tension? How do we have permission to face the brutal, true while still believing, as Stockdale would say, still believing in these ideals that we think are so, ingrained in such a part of our country.
• 17:39
  Yeah. And I love the way you put the idea of values coming into conflict. Right. Because that's exactly what it is. When we used to teach this skill, actually to the army of what it's like for an individual to have the core values come into conflict, we call them detecting icebergs, right? Because it's exactly what it is.
• 17:54
  It's like you're hitting an iceberg. You hit a flat out wall and you're there, right? And you see, especially in America, the gap that exists between stated values and lived experience. Right. And I'm certainly not going to be the individual to say that gap doesn't exist. Of course it exists, but it's always existed within that. And we take a look at the history books and we flip through all 250 years, there's always been this idea like, yes, we've come a long way.
• 18:20
  We really have all of the movements that we've had, the growth that we have, the advocacy that we've seen on such broad stages. There's been a lot of progress, but it isn't without hurdles, it isn't without challenges, and it isn't without contradiction with this idea that, look, there's there's going to be, unfortunately, areas in which we can always still get better, areas where we need to further idealize.
• 18:42
  Yeah, I think you can't go back and look at the Founding Fathers and think about like, how awesome they were and the courage and conviction of what they believed in. And then most of them were also owning slaves, and we were replacing the Native Americans, and we were not giving black people the right to vote or women the right to vote.
• 19:01
  And so, I mean, right on the all men are created equal when there is evidence thousands and thousands of, experiences and documentation of like they didn't believe that. And, and so it's easy to say, okay, well, maybe they were just a bunch of old white men and said, all white men are created equal, and it can feel like that.
• 19:20
  That's not what they stated. But sometimes that's what it can feel like because they were acting consistent with what they believe. Yeah. And I think being able to have the courage to have that conversation, especially for us, being white males, to being empathetic to well, yes, we state that, but it doesn't feel like always it's been that way.
• 19:43
  And I think the goal that we've talked about can we recognize progress, not perfection.
• 19:49
  I mean, we beat the drum on awareness with every single client that we work with, right? It is the exact same thing when we talk about American society, right? We have to have awareness of where these gaps exist in order to actually take action, to hold ourselves accountable and hold each other accountable in order to reach those ideals.
• 20:08
  Right. This the idea of life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. I don't think you'd find many people disagreeing with those ideals. Right. So the idea we have these great things to aspire to that are going to unify us. Absolutely. But what we tend to see and as you said, like the reality divides, right? The idea of progress, unfortunately, is uneven.
• 20:28
  It isn't a linear path. As much as we would love it to be. There's a lot of tropes, there's a lot of em. There's a lot of flow there, and it comes with, okay, where are we at in terms of this? Right. If I look in the mirror today, how well am I abiding to not only my own core values, but the values of being an American, the ideals of being an American and advocating and putting my neck out on the line.
• 20:49
  And that idea of like the the quote that you had about courage hit it right on the head. Right? And the stiffness of spines like, how many of us truly have that stiffness of spines right now to stand up for what is right in that regard, and to continue to work towards those ideals in a meaningful way? But if we don't, they bite the what?
• 21:06
  What was the King? George said, all it takes for evil to exist is for good people to sit around and do nothing. Yeah.
• 21:11
  it's so complex and so difficult and so challenging. And this constant reminders of who we are not keeps us from only fighting for who we really are and what we really believe. And so it's easy to kind of get in this state of apathy about America and about the ideals, because the harsh truth is, we aren't living up to these.
• 21:32
  And so it's easy to kind of excuse yourself from this. Personal responsibility is like, man, America is in a bad spot or so is it. Okay, you know what? How am I living up to this? You know what Abraham Lincoln say? The best way to defeat an enemy is make him a friend. Well, how do you do that?
• 21:48
  Well, you respect the life of that individual. You respect the right for them to speak their mind, to have different views. And you respect the right for them to define their own success, for them to define their happiness. That's how you first and foremost, you got to deal with your own life. And then that's how you move towards other people.
• 22:06
  yeah, I you hit run in the head, right? Like we have to have that baseline level of respect, right? You can't you can't get better without it. We can't coexist in a way in which we move towards those ideals. Without that baseline level of respect.
• 22:22
  I love how we're kind of coming back to this individual commitment of living out these values. And so we hope, as you reflect on this 250th anniversary celebration, Birthday of America, that you can give yourself permission, regardless of where you stand, to look at these core ideals, these core values and say, what do they really mean?
• 22:44
  What do they mean to me? And how can I put those into practice? Because then, you know, if you think about how inspirational and aspirational they were to the Founding fathers, you know, we have a group of people for 250 years that believe so strongly in America and what she stood for and these ideals, and they were willing to fight for her.
• 23:03
  They were willing to die for her. They were willing to put their lives on the line and and put themselves at risk in all aspects. Think about just the Civil War. Think about, the, the, abolition of slavery. Think about civil rights, think about women's suffrage,
• 23:25
  you look at what people were willing to fight for. Yeah. And how they fight. And to me at least, they were in the game. At least they were willing to have a conversation. At least they were willing to stand up for something. So how do we how do we bring people together?
• 23:40
  How do we how do we have some of these courageous conversations? What are some things we can do since we seem to be so divided as a country right now? Yeah. I mean, it starts with ourselves and recognizing our own values. The great Americans that we've referenced and the ones that we even haven't referenced in our 250 years of existence knew who they were at a fundamental level and do what they stood for.
• 24:02
  Right? So when we talk about what you what it looks like to live in alignment with your own values and to stand by those values, you'll have the clarity, you'll have the consistency, and you're probably more than willing to lean into those more difficult conversations, right? Because that idea of, okay, it's not just I have this core value of integrity, or I have this core value of standing up for what's right.
• 24:23
  Right. What does it actually look like for me to do that? I can put pen to paper and I can list 100 different values. Like Anthony feels like this, right? Anthony really feel strongly about this value. But if I don't operationalize that, if I don't, just if I don't take that that necessary step further, it's just going to be it's going to be meaningless.
• 24:44
  Right. So when we talk about, okay, what does it actually look like for me to live my life with that clarity and consistency, especially when I'm challenged, especially when those values are pushed up against me? Yes. Even when it's inconvenient. Right? I know who I am and I know what I'm going to stand for. And those are the stories of great Americans.
• 25:02
  Those are the stories of what has led us to establish this country and all of the great things about this country. Yeah. So I think when knowing who you are and have the courage to live that out, yeah, I think to me with that comes inherent to to curiosity, I wonder, am I living this way? First and foremost, I'm not curious about what it might look like if I really live up to these ideals, but I'm curious about somebody else's perspective.
• 25:30
  And I think if you if you look back at the Founding Fathers and their sense of innate curiosity, they were, voracious readers. They were always trying to learn. They were always trying to improve themselves. They were always trying to raise their level of self-awareness. And then they use that as like, what might it mean for other people?
• 25:46
  And so to me, can I lean into others? What did the great Ted Lasso say? Quoting Walt Whitman be curious, not judgmental. Yeah, and if we can step into that, say, hey, we all are human beings first and foremost. We all are Americans. What does that look like for you? What does that feel like for you? What is what is it really?
• 26:05
  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean to you in this day and age? Well, help me understand why you think differently. Help me understand why you believe this. Help me understand that, and then we can lead this courageous conversation. When we start talking about problems and not about people, that that that's what Eleanor Roosevelt said, that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.
• 26:34
  Okay, how can we discuss these ideas in a very healthy and respectful, respectable way? And it's okay to disagree.
• 26:42
  It it truly is a relational issue. And a lot of times. Right. And especially like, one of the simplest framings of this, if you're in a relationship, you've probably heard this. It's not me versus you, it's me and you versus the problem.
• 26:55
  Right. And that's a such an important framing to have in this day and age. Whatever you might disagree with someone on wherever the division occurs. Right. We are only going to see progress if we can come to terms with this idea that it isn't me versus you. Right? We may disagree on this, but fundamentally there's a larger issue at hand.
• 27:15
  There's something wrong between the gap that exists between reality and what is ideal. Yes, that's the issue. And when we can come together and we can flesh out our differences, we can acknowledge each other's viewpoints, respect each other's differences, respect each other's disagreements in that way, it's where you're going to see progress,
• 27:33
  Yeah. I mean, raising my children older now, but especially raising teenagers is not for the faint of heart. And and I always had to remind her we're on the same team, right? We want the same things. Don't let the stress of raising children divide us. And I think that's a little bit about what we're talking about here, is if we can remind ourselves we're on the same team, not only being human, but as Americans.
• 27:54
  And we believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we accomplish that. You see it differently. The name. But why is it so important? Abraham Lincoln said that America will never be defeated from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
• 28:14
  And a house divided against itself cannot stand.
• 28:16
  Right. All you have, I'll give you that. You have a lot more niche quotes than I do. I've got the I've got the quotes everybody's heard that I like with that too. But it is. But I think that's the thesis. If we want to keep going that, that, that how do we live up to these ideals and how do we have the courage to just share ideas and opinions and thoughts without attacking?
• 28:35
  And I think that's what the world has become so divided is, you know, it's easy to kind of get on social media or state your opinion and, and it's black and white. Instead of saying, hey, it's you and me attacking the problem. What is the problem is we aren't living up to our ideals.
• 28:49
  We have to find ways to to separate that disagreement from disrespect. Yeah, right. We have to find ways on a fundamental level to engage in those conversations. Even when there's something that you said that I disagree with. We can't just shut it down. We can't just hit the block button or whatever it is to be like, okay, that's it.
• 29:08
  This person's out of my life forever, right? The growth doesn't come from that. We talk about the psychological safety. You have to marry it with accountability. You have to be able to willing to lean in to, okay, these are the standards we set for ourselves. This is true. This is the standards we've set for ourselves as Americans. And that psychological safety aspect, especially when it comes to more divisive issues, is not about avoiding conflict.
• 29:30
  Yes, it is not about avoiding conflict. It's about managing healthy conflict and leaning into it for productive solutions and productive brainstorms regarding that to have deeper, more meaningful conversations there. And that's ultimately when we talk about America's 258 and maybe another 250 years from now when we hit the fast forward button. Unfortunately, we're going to be long gone by then.
• 29:51
  But that ideal of, okay, what did it actually look like in the year 2026 until 22 or 2302? To see that growth, to see where and continue that progress that our founding fathers set for us? Well, I think that's the piece right back to their vision. I guess they didn't just do it for them.
• 30:15
  Like they did it for us.
• 30:18
  I'm not sure they can dream or invasion. Hey, how long America would last, right? But but but they did it for something and and others greater than themselves. And so for for us, like, once you know what you really want. What? And that's what they clarified. Here's what we really want. We want to create a country that we believe all men are created equal.
• 30:36
  That's what we want to create. That's but not only for us. Then you know what you're willing to give up. And so if we can kind of move beyond ourselves and think long term, okay, what kind of world do we want to continue to create? What kind of country do we really want to be a part of? And I think the message for you and I, and hopefully for all of us is, well, it starts with me.
• 30:59
  How am I living up to these ideals? What's it look like in my home? What's it look like in my community? What's it like at my work? What's it look in my city, in my state, in my country? That life, liberty and pursuit of happiness means so much to me that I'm going to not make it about me.
• 31:18
  it's built by our individual choices, the day to day lives that we lead, the daily actions we engage in, or the daily actions we don't engage in. That is what's going to ultimately shape the next 250 years. The conversations we had versus the conversations we avoided, the decisions we made to pursue someone else's version of happiness versus pursuing our own.
• 31:38
  The idea of leaning into that liberty, and then also how we approach life and what it means as an American life, as an idealized life to. So it is that's the that's the thing to walk away with here is if you look in the mirror today and you look in the mirror moving forward, how are you aligning to this at the individual level?
• 31:57
  you know, what we saw all the time. It's not going to happen through you as a person happens within you. That's right. And I would be remiss not to mention the research that we talk about all the time. It's just when your life is over, you want to regret what you didn't do instead of what you did.
• 32:12
  And so as you get ready to celebrate the 250th birthday of America, I hope you take time to reflect around these ideals. I hope you really take to heart and what that really miss that we believe that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among those which are life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• 32:34
  So as we wrap this up, you know, Anthony, my hope for you, my hope, our listeners, my hope for me is you. So you leaned into this holiday weekend, and you think about 250 years that you go back to where we started this conversation, that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among those which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• 32:57
  And we hope you accept the challenge as we are going to try to do as well to think about what those mean, what it looks like, and how can you move from idea to implementation in your life. And we we are excited to see what the next 250 years look like. So I appreciate the conversation, Anthony I enjoyed it.
• 33:16
  And until next time, continue to be better and pursue better.