Moving Up

Happy Monday!

I was reminded over the last few weeks just how much two things are true:

1. All forms of work present us with opportunities to “move up”

2. We are all obsessed with “moving up”

Whether we are moving up the big company ladder or we are trying to break out as a startup founder, there is one big miss that I want us to talk about today.

What is the big miss?

Like most all topics we discuss on the YPT, the miss isn’t that moving up is bad. If our work is fundamentally good for us, which it is, then moving up is a reflection of healthy stewardship of our gifts and talents.

The big miss is the why.

Here are three of the most common unhealthy “whys” I see behind our desire and determination to “move up”:

• Why #1: The need to seek validation and affirm our self-image

• Why #2: The need to be ahead of our peers

• Why #3: The need to prove someone else wrong

The reality is that oftentimes, all three are at play.

Before we dig a little more into these, let’s talk about what our why should be.

Move up to Lift up

Remember, our first job is to grow as human beings, or said differently, to move up. Our second job tends to be the one that gets overlooked. That job is to support others in their pursuit of growth.

So, when you put them together, we move up to lift up!

Someone that I’ve followed pretty closely for the last few years is an author named Donald Miller, who wrote “Building a Storybrand” back in 2017. One of the main takeaways that I had from the book was that many brands mess up because they try to be the hero of the story. Miller’s point is that brands are meant to be the guide, and the guide’s purpose is to lift up their customer as the hero of the story.

Here is a cool visual to depict Miller’s framework:

There are a ton of great movie examples to pull from for this framework:

• Star Wars: Yoda and Luke Skywalker

• Hunger Games: Haymitch Abernathy and Katniss Everdeen

• The Karate Kid: Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso

I especially love Yoda and Mr. Miyagi as examples of the type of leaders who model what it looks like to lift up. They both reached the top of their working field, only to live understated and humble lives serving others.

So, how do we start getting better at our second job and live more like Mr. Miyagi?

Avoiding the traps

What isn’t possible to fully depict in a 2hr movie, is the daily discipline to overcome the negative temptations we all face. The reality in which you and I live is that there are many temptations to find our motivation in unhealthy places. You don’t have to look far between social media, professional sports, mass media, and entertainment to see how we fall trap to these bad habits.

The messages we get from all of these places drive us to think:

• Being ahead of others brings us self-confidence

• Being ahead of others makes us look good among our peers

• Being ahead of others helps us prove “our haters” wrong

The hardest part about overcoming these unhealthy beliefs is that we often don’t recognize how unconscious these lines of thinking are. It is unlikely that you or I would think these things out loud in our minds, but it is 100% likely that these are hidden beliefs that exist more often than we’d like to admit.

The words we speak and the actions we display flow out of the posture of our hearts. So if we are going start lifting up more often, and approach our work from a healthy place, we need to protect our hearts from so much of what we see, hear, and experience in the world.

Let’s make lifting up the new moving up

Here is my challenge to you and me as we start this new week. Let’s make lifting up the new moving up. Let’s make the following shifts.

❌ Moving up to seek validation for yourself
✅ Lifting up to cultivate assurance within others

❌ Moving up to be ahead of our peers
✅ Lifting up to bring our peers with us

❌ Moving up to prove someone else wrong
✅ Lifting up to get rid of this idea completely

I look forward to a world where my kids and grandkids see their work not as a way to move up, but rather as a way to lift up, empowering others to flourish!

Thanks again for being on this journey with me. As always, please respond to this email if you’d like to talk and discuss anything from this or prior posts! And if you have any friends who you think might derive value from this - I’d love for you to share it with them.

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With Hope and Gratitude,

Alex