How Ali Long is Helping You Find Fulfillment in Your Work

[00:00:00] Les McDaniel: All right. Today we are going to continue down this pathway of conquering chaos for greater fulfillment in our lives today. And I can't wait to go down this, next level with you because to me it's one of those that is, it's so wrapped up in everything. I mean, we are really gonna dive in personal health and I'm gonna start by telling you a little bit about a time when I literally felt like I was at my worst.

[00:00:27] Les McDaniel: We had been through a, a, well, honestly, let's be frank, it was other spots of My piece index that were out of whack. Things like my job, the place that I worked, fell apart. My purpose was completely devastated. we had started a church and I was so thrilled about how we were going about it, and now the church had.

[00:00:46] Les McDaniel: not gone the direction that we had wanted and was no longer being able to be supported. And it was painful and people were hurt and there were a lot of things. So my people, my place, my purpose, they were in my provision. They were all outta whack for a time. And I remember just running as quickly to any place that would provide us safety.

[00:01:04] Les McDaniel: And so we came to Austin and we, lived with my in-laws for a little while and it was in that moment, That my mental, spiritual and physical state just went down to almost 25%. I mean, it was, it was horrific because the external influences start to weigh in on me. I began to lean into substances as a way of coping with my life, drinking a little more than I normally.

[00:01:31] Les McDaniel: I started to quit working out because I just didn't have the energy. I, I wasn't spending as much time praying and meditating and, and growing, spending time in the personal growth and development areas that were such an important part of my life for so many years. and at the same time, I didn't know what I was gonna.

[00:01:49] Les McDaniel: My entire life, I knew I had a pathway. My purpose was clear, and it was the, my leading indicator was absolutely on target. I was supporting and loving and caring for people in ways it felt like they were the way that I was always taught, and they were authentically true and they challenged even the current methodologies of things that were going on.

[00:02:09] Les McDaniel: And it was invigorating to be somebody who felt like he was a trailblazer and a new way of living this Christian life in the world today. And I don't wanna get bogged down. Some of you may be like, Oh, he's starting to talk Christian and all that stuff. Guys, look, here's the deal. I understand that that's maybe a trigger for some of you.

[00:02:27] Les McDaniel: However,

[00:02:29] Les McDaniel: there is something about the personal health that we are talking about today, which contains within it three different components. The first that we typically go to in our world, which is physical, is not the end all be. I run in groups right now where everything is about being tip top shape, living the longest possible life that you could ever live, man.

[00:02:50] Les McDaniel: They're talking about right now, not this group, but many groups are talking about right now, that, that in the next 10 years that the, the expectation for how long we can live. Could be up to 140, 150 years of age, our kids could potentially live well beyond that doubling in some cases the average age before death today.

[00:03:12] Les McDaniel: It's crazy to, to think about the fact that we could live that long. And yet as we've discussed, so many of us are not living in a peaceful state. We're living in chaos. And so what are we really doing when we start to focus in on living and having a healthier body that can sustain itself for 150? Living into a space that is just chaotic for longer period of time.

[00:03:34] Les McDaniel: You see, our physical health is important, but it does not contain the full breadth of everything. In fact, you could be in physical tip top health and be one of the most unhealthy people on the planet. And I believe that our mental and our spiritual health is such a key. And so when I'm talking about Christianity, for me, it is the space that I've been able to walk into and to breathe in the breath of life, knowing that I can't stop that breath within me, that there is something bigger than me and there's something bigger than you that doesn't allow me to hold my breath.

[00:04:08] Les McDaniel: That it has mechanisms within me that keep my heart beating, that keep this brain thinking that. The blood flowing and all those things, they are being done by something greater than me for you, For me, for our world, every aspect of it is, has got this symbiotic relationship to it. And so having a connection to this thing that is bigger than me is a huge part of what it means to be healthy.

[00:04:30] Les McDaniel: whether you're a Hindu, a Jewish rabbi or a, a laity member of the church, it doesn't really matter. Or some other new age spiritual. Beginning to tap into and seeking that thing that is bigger than us, that allows us to dance with trees and the birds in this relationship where they depend on us and we depend upon them in this mutually beautiful, gracious dance is a key component to what it looks like for us to begin to find true peace in the realm of our personal.

[00:05:04] Les McDaniel: And not to mention that all of this is being thrown at us at a time when we have just gone through an immense challenge where we have all been isolated due to covid, put in our homes, locked the door, don't come out, wear masks. If you do wear gloves, nobody knows. Take this medicine, whatever. And we're also afraid, and it creates this fear factor within us that really burdens our mental.

[00:05:32] Les McDaniel: that today, I can tell you that when you look at our universities, they are scrambling right now to find ways to promote healthier mental health for their, their students. Not to mention that, that you look around at are our health workers an unbelievable amount of stress that was placed upon.

[00:05:51] Les McDaniel: That sent them into chaos. N not to mention putting your, your children in your home to be schooled over Zoom. Oh my goodness. I, I cannot even begin to tell you what it was like to have my 17 year old sitting in a recliner all day for 10 to 12 hours straight just doing homework or watching Zoom. It was not good for his health or hours for that matter.

[00:06:14] Les McDaniel: So we have all of these pieces of the puzzle that are so important. How they affect one another are such critical components to what really is our personal health. And so it's important for us to begin to recognize and to categorize things in our life that are assets and that are liabilities to our personal health.

[00:06:40] Les McDaniel: When we dive into this, what we gotta recognize is that today that we have literally over 52.9 million, I think this is a study of done in 2020 by the National Institute of Mental Health, it is mind boggling that 52.9 million people have been struggling with mental illness.

[00:06:59] Les McDaniel: Suffering from various degrees of anything from anxiety to depression, to schizophrenia, to I mean, and, and not to mention that we know for a fact now we've, the numbers are out. I don't have them. But the numbers of how many the suicides that have gone up as a result of this enclosure of being, forced to be isolated from all of our friends and family in such a way, it, it is a burden that we've have, have to, we're gonna have, our kids are gonna face this, the challenges of this in years to come.

[00:07:26] Les McDaniel: And we've gotta begin to start to prepare now. And there's an onslaught of, athletes right now that are saying, I can no longer chase the gold medal and the pressures that come with that, it's too much, it's too much pressure, and it's affecting my mental health. We have superstars that are coming outta the woodwork talking about mental health more than more than ever.

[00:07:46] Les McDaniel: Every drug commercial you see that comes on a TV is about your mental health. And so I think that while this may be one of the shorter of our series, this is all encompassing across every single one of these and that there's not one of these pieces of our peace index that really isn't impacted by this one in particular, our mental health is such a key component.

[00:08:11] Les McDaniel: and yet I want to do wanna discuss the fact that sometimes we can get too hyper focused on certain ones of these. I know from a fact that I've actually been too hyperfocused on my spirituality at particular junctures, and it has led to me not taking care of the things in my life that are important, like the provision.

[00:08:30] Les McDaniel: To the full degree that I could, we, we had the ability to do it, but it's led me down a path where I didn't know how I was gonna provide so we can get stuck. I know people who are, who are in the tip top physical health. And yet their marriages are falling apart because They, start off, Yes, I'll support your habit to be a triathlete, but the triathlon gets in the way of the actual marriage because they have to train and it becomes that this thing becomes the idol of their life rather than the supporting growth and goodness.

[00:08:58] Les McDaniel: That comes with the ideology. That is, that marriage really is where two people come together and may become one and support one another. We can get so focused and hyper-focused on one thing, that it destroys other aspects of our personal health. And so as we go through this today, one of the things that I really want to begin to discuss around this is I really want you to just ask some questions around these particular things.

[00:09:24] Les McDaniel: we're not gonna go in as deep, but I want you to break that, that what you might have thought was just Meaning your physical. AKA Personal Health. And now that we've had this discussion, I want you to rate yourself in those three categories, mental health, physical health, and spiritual health.

[00:09:40] Les McDaniel: Go ahead and put a number of zero to a hundred and then add those up and divide by three, and you will now have your personal health number for the piece index

[00:09:54] Les McDaniel: as we move forward. , I'm wondering who you might be able to lean into on this particular piece, Index personal. You see, this is not one of those things that we can necessarily do alone. In fact, I'm a part of a group called the Front Row Dads, which is a really powerful group It's family man with businesses. That's what the, they're all about. They're highly successful people who recognize that they've struggled with the priorities of their life, of putting their family first. this particular pillar of theirs is one that really, they spend a lot of time challenging one another, and I have a great deal of accountability and I, I don't even wanna call it accountability because it's really more about accounting.

[00:10:36] Les McDaniel: You see this notion of accountability is kind of a false idea that, that I can somehow hold you to a standard, you know, that, that make you do something by just being someone that's there. Really what I'm doing is I'm asking you to take account. Of yourself and your goals and your desires for peace in your life.

[00:10:58] Les McDaniel: Do you have a means for accounting? Do you have an accounting partner? Someone where you can sit down and talk about, Here is where I'm at currently and here are the steps I'm going to take and can we support each other in this? I can always be supportive of you, just like my accountant can be in the accounting process of my finance.

[00:11:17] Les McDaniel: I can always be supportive of those that are in my life that I have relationships with when I can understand what their accounting and their desired outcomes would be for their peace index. So be thinking about that. Who can I journey this with and write that name down. Maybe it's two or three people.

[00:11:32] Les McDaniel: Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's a, a good friend of yours. Maybe it's that you need to hire a coach in each one of these categories. Maybe you need to lean into a group or a support group to be able to help you with this, whatever it may be. This is gonna be an important part of the stepping stones for you in in increasing this particular section of your piece index.

[00:11:53] Les McDaniel: And you could do this across the board for all of these to be sure and check in with people about your whole piece of index. But this one in particular is going to be a key component. So piece to you as you are on this journey to find supportive people so that you can take a stronger accounting of what it is in your own life account for those personal, physical, and the personal health that, that reside in your mental, physical, and spiritual needs.

[00:12:21] Les McDaniel: And let's begin to take that step forward. And as we do, I look forward to our final little fifth pillar of this piece, index, which is all about provision. It's one of those that I don't always love to talk about. It's one of those that I always find myself feeling a little insecure. And, and we're gonna talk about that because I think there is wisdom in the insecurity, and yet there's a great deal of peace that can be found there as well.

[00:12:45] Les McDaniel: So, coming up soon and until then piece be with.