Get out of your own way and ask better questions of yourself with Calvin Niles
We often become so engrossed in our smartphones that we miss the important things going on in the lives of those we love. This was our guest’s experience when he missed his son’s brilliance at basketball practice, and he has made it his life’s mission to work with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professional coaches to help them achieve balance in this digital age.
An empowerment coach and founder of Calvin Niles Consulting, Calvin Niles joins me today as we discuss:
- How he’s fighting device distraction with a wooden box,
- How mindfulness can help us lead better lives,
- Failure and creating habits that promote success
In this episode we discuss:
01:07 Quick Introduction to Calvin Niles
01:48 Calvin talks about consulting and his startup, Medietas
04:33 TOME – Fighting device distraction with a wooden box?
09:52 Calvin on how missing his son’s feat at basketball practice spurred him to practice mindfulness
12:51 Striking the balance between the usefulness of apps and smartphone addiction
14:17 Calvin’s biggest failure in business and what he learned from it
23:47 Calvin on experiencing failure, habits he’s worked on to improve, and the kaizen approach
27:54 How long does it take to create a habit?
Quick Juice Questions
32:36 Do you invest? If so, what do you invest in?
“I don’t currently invest because I’ve invested so much in my own business enterprise recently. But any investment for me should have a positive social impact. ”
33:27 What most inspires you? When and where are you most inspired?
“From time to time, I will go into the forest and literally just switch off. In that silence is where most of my inspiration comes, whether that’s a new idea, whether that’s inspired to let something go, whether that’s an answer to a problem I’m trying to solve.”
34:30 Which book has inspired you and changed your thinking the most?
“I would say Letting Go by David Hawkins, the spiritual leader and psychiatrist who wrote a powerful book on the power of surrender.”
36:03 What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received and/or given?
My dad actually said to me, “Whatever you want to achieve, just know the answer’s out there.”
38:38 If there’s one last bit of Executive Juice you can share for people who want to get to the top of their game, what would it be?
“Your power is your voice. Within each of us, we have a voice which speaks. If we listen to that, that will provide all of our solutions that we’re looking for in our business and in our life.”
Quotes
On lessons learned from biggest failure
- One of the deeper learnings is this idea of “how are you going to become a better person in your own growth to make the running of your business and your organization better?” because, ultimately, it’s an extension of you.
- It (failure) then becomes a way of asking yourself the deeper questions of why you’re doing what you’re doing — Do you really have a mission attached to the piece of work or the expression of a product or service that you are working on?
- When these things [failures] happen, we have an opportunity to ask ourselves new questions — Am I looking in the right direction? Does the solution exist outside of me?
- There are so many things that are not in our control in business and in life that we spend an inordinate amount of time focusing our energies on. From my personal point of view, I double down my energy and effort on what’s within my realms of control — my own attitude to the work I’m doing, is my planning sufficient.
On “It’s not failure, it’s a learning”
- This is absolutely the difference between intellectual understanding and experience. Learning the phrase — It’s not failure, it’s a learning — is one thing. Then when we get into the experience, we want to run away.
Book Recommendation
- If anybody really feels like there’s something holding them back in business, in relationship, in life, I think this book — Letting Go by David Hawkins — has the potential to completely change your life.
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