# 43 - What a National Tragedy Taught Me About Purpose

Episode 43

[00:00:00] : Hello, everybody. It's Rick Lewis. This is Episode 43 with the follow through Formula Podcast. And I'm here today, uh, under dress, meaning I'm just having a hard day. It's I don't have the same level of energy and motivation and inspiration for carrying on. I've spent a good part of today just taking some downtime in the process of getting myself here to the microphone and finding my way, too. Say something useful or valuable. First thing I needed to do was just kind of clear the deck and let you know where I'm coming from. And the process of feeling challenged today caused me to look around for sources of inspiration, things I have in my life in my memory or my attention that can help keep me on track. What came to mind was something that happened five years ago. Some of you will remember this because it was very big in the national news. It happened in California, and as it turned out, there was a married couple who, unbeknownst to the authorities, had been stockpiling weapons, and they opened fire on a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San San Bernardino, California this was It was December 2nd of 2015, and the whole country went into shock because we were just watching on the news. The literal play by play of this shooting, I think, was like 14 people were killed, 20 something injured, interviews with the family, members of those who were gunned down. I remember there was even footage of a father on the street outside of the center, and he had gotten a text from his daughter who was inside this facility when the attack happened, and she texted, saying, I'm hiding inside and he hadn't heard from her sense. So it was just It was horrific. It was just so harrowing, and the whole country was going through this watching this event. So it was a terrible, awful tragedy. And so that happened on December 2nd. And then on December 3rd after this had occurred and it was still in the news, it popped into my mind because I have I've been a speaker for years and I travel all the time for events and it popped into my mind. It's like, Oh, don't I have an event somewhere in Southern California coming up soon and when you travel a whole bunch and you're constantly gone on the road city to city. I honestly didn't used to pay that much attention to my calendar and told like the week before it, I'd look and see. OK, where am I going? Who am I speaking for? And this was one of those times where it just popped in my mind. Oh, I think I'm supposed to go down somewhere in Southern California soon. So I checked my calendar. And as it turned out, what I saw was a little bit. It got my attention pretty quick because I was, in fact, booked in Southern California in San Diego to speak for a division of the same regional center network in California of the one that was attack. So the Inland Regional Center at San Bernardino was where the attack happened, and I was scheduled to speak at the San Diego Regional Center, which is part of the same chain of service centers, and I was booked to speak eight days after the attack happened. And not only that, looking at the details of the event, it was also ah, holiday party. So you could imagine that point what I was having toe work through in my own mind going okay, eight days later, Um, like, less than 100 miles away. Another inland regional center. Another holiday party. I'm booked to go and speak at this event. So the first thing I thought I was calling my client, and so I picked up the phone to call and say, Hey, what are you doing? You know what's your plan? What's going on here? And I didn't get any. Uh, I didn't reach the my meeting contact, so I left a message and my message. I just say, Hey, look, I totally understand. If you guys need to cancel, I can, you know, release the, uh, the cancelation clause that we have. I'll refund your deposit. No worries, no problem on my end if you want to cancel. And of course, that was not me just being generous. It was me out of my fear kind of going. I sort of hope this thing doesn't go forward as planned, but I got a call back within a couple of hours. They left a message for me saying that the staff had just had an emergency meeting and they decided to proceed with the event is scheduled so that immediately sent me into some serious self reflection because my mind was just going a million miles a minute and just imagining the worst. And it was so instructive and interesting to see how my mind immediately went off on this fear tangent off what might happen and I had to really self reflect and go Well, what are my Where are my values? What are how do I follow through in my commitments? And what by what metrics do I measure how much I want fear to inform my decisions in a situation like this. So I had to really work with that. I was introspective about it and just searching inside. And then I talked to my family and I decided, OK, I'm they're gonna hold the event. I'm gonna hold up my end of the contract and I am going to go to San Diego and follow through on this and in the actual this is so instructive because I'm sure you've had situations and like, like this in your life where you really are afraid of something. But then you decide to move toward it. And once you're in the situation, you realize that all of your fears where there were in your imagination, they were just in your mind. And as I navigated to San Diego went to the airport and got in a cab and went to the San Diego Regional Center. I didn't have any actual sense of alarm or danger when I had imagined that I would feel so uncomfortable and worried going down to attend this event. But that didn't happen. So I got to the center and immediately found my event contact, and I went to check in and say, You know, how are things going? Because I expected that the attendance to their planned party was going to be pretty low. Assuming that other people would be in the same mindset is me working with the alarm of what had just happened in the near vicinity just a few days ago, they had 500 staff members that were had responded initially to the party invitation, so they originally expected 500 people at their holiday party, and as I talked to the event contact when I got there, she's like, Yeah, we we might have a small crowd. Please just be ready to adjust what you do. There might be a small audience, maybe a very small audience. So I said, No problem. I totally understand. Will will make it work with whoever shows up. So I set up my equipment to did a sound check and then sat down off to the side to just wait while people showed up for the party. And I always get there a couple hours early to set up. And surprisingly, guests also started to arrive early, and they were just coming in in waves. And as a zit started getting closer to the actual event. The waves of guests were coming in greater numbers and just this e remember watching and the front door, these waves of people showing up and everyone in all this holiday dress dressed very, very colorfully and festively and showing up in droves without any shred or any hint off them being in fear or trepidation or worry. And so the background of this organization and their staff is that they serve the developmentally disabled in San Diego. That's what the San Diego Regional Center does their whole. The culture of their whole organization is steeped in and used to the constant presence of emergencies and challenging circumstances and situations all the time. 24 7, 365 days a year. And as they were showing up with not any shred of trepidation or doubt or hesitation, I realized that there purpose. The purpose that they showed up for each and every day, which was to serve other people in challenging situations and circumstances, was something that had prepared them for a Nen sid int like this. So they were basically unfazed in the face of their practiced and developed habit off serving other people who are in need regardless of the circumstances and regardless off their own imagined safety. So this annual holiday party, the main feature of it besides having a speaker, which I was hired to fulfill, is on awards ceremony and in the awards ceremony. What they do is they just recognize each other for their extraordinary levels of service. And some of those service awards just surround people's longevity and the consistency of they're showing up in their jobs. There was a bus driver there who got an award because he had not missed a single day of work in 30 years. There was another woman who worked in their main head office at in their office staff, and she had been there for 40 years, showing up day after day to serve the needs of the developmentally disabled community and the spirit of this organization in the face of the kind of challenges they encounter day after day. Their spirit was just so positive and infectious and beautiful to watch. I mean, I had been hired to go as a speaker and inspire them. But what was happening was the reverse. I was watching what I had gone through in my own mind and how I had almost stayed home in relationship to this challenge. And what I saw is that an organization that is so connected to a purpose and dedicated to that purpose and had been acting this out day after day after day. For decades they were so steeped in the continuity of that purpose and the habits off action that are required to serve that purpose that this event, this national tragedy, did not dissuade or interrupt or set them off course, even one iota. Their ballroom filled to the brim with every single last staff member who was part of that organization. What I what I took away was the rule of purpose. Because when you have a purpose and then especially when you have a purpose that you are bonded to with others, you have a whole group of people who together are actively practicing and animating Ah, commitment to a purpose, and especially to a purpose that involves serving other people that has got such power in such continuity and can endure in the face of tremendous challenges. So this event is vivid in my memory, and I turned my attention to it today because I needed something. I needed a reminder of what purpose really is and its power and its necessity. And so I wanted to share that story with you today because in my own day of need of something to lift me up and to keep me on track. This is the story that came to mind. So today, here today again, and I've I've said I've made this statement many times in the last five years. I just kind of shout out to the San Diego Regional Center to this group of people and their culture and say thank you. I just have such gratitude to this organization for who they are and what they demonstrated. So here we are, once again talking about purpose, what it is, where it comes from, what is good for and how we follow through on ourselves, each and every day with what matters most. I hope that this journey is active for you and that you are are challenging and pushing up against those habitual comforts and areas where you might bow out and back down from your own purpose, either from identifying it and discovering it, or from following through with taking action on it. And if you're listening right now, it is active in some way, shape or form. You wouldn't be listening to these episodes if you didn't care about this subject. And if it wasn't something that's important to you. So thank you for tuning in. Once again, I'm Rick Lewis, and this has been Episode 43 of the follow through Formula Podcast, and I'll be back tomorrow