Life can never be a straight path. Most of the time, it is rough and full of roadblocks. But you can choose to steer the wheel and find yourself on a much better path, which is possible through self-leadership. In this episode, integrative coach Dr. Lisa Yeung talks about the power of leading oneself in traversing the roughest moments of our lives. She explains how embracing self-ownership can lead to fundamental personal transformation. Dr. Lisa also discusses the importance of experiencing an inner shift to live the life you deserve and get you out of your lowest moments, as well as lead others to do the same.
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Listen to the episode here
The Power Of Self-Leadership With Dr. Lisa Yeung
Welcome to the show. My name is Andy McDowell, you’re a host coming to you from the City of Atlanta, Georgia and something that people don’t associate Atlanta with. We are associated with Coca-Cola, hospitality of the South, the mega center of college football. If you’re ever on an airplane landing at the airport in Atlanta, look out the window because most people don’t understand how much Atlanta is in the city of trees.
Look out the window and look at the canopy of trees that you see around. “Andy, why are you bringing this up?” It’s because we’re recording this in late March in Atlanta, and have started what we call the yellow season. “Andy, what is yellow season?” A lot of those trees you see in the canopy in Atlanta are Southern pines and are notorious for having pollen that’s extremely large. You can easily see and it covers everything. Landon hates it because by the middle of April, everybody’s car is Yellow. Not Brown or Red or Green or Black. It’s Yellow because it covers everything.
If you’re going, “Andy, you sound a little nasally.” That’s the reason why. It’s probably not a strange thing for my guest to be a doctor. The universe has a sense of humor. She’s bringing up allergies on the episode. It’s not probably not a surprise that my guest is a doctor. Her name is Dr. Lisa Yeung. We’ve known each other for probably about a year or a little more. I’ve had some great conversations because we’re cut from the same cloth. After 45 or 50 minutes of conversation, you’ll understand why because we’re both technical in nature. We both are tackling the same problem.
We come at it from a slightly different angle because we’re on different sides of science. You may see that coming out of the conversation, but let me read her bio then we’ll bring in Dr. Lisa, get to know her a little bit as a person then we’ll dive into some self-leadership or leadership conversation about what rabbit hole we’re going to go down. Here we go.
Dr. Lisa Yeung is a Physician and Medical Director turned Integrative Coach, TEDx and Keynote Speaker whose unconventional path has been shaped by her personal journey of self-discovery and healing from burnout and depression. The wisdom, skills, and experience gained from her personal transformation allowed her to more powerfully and effectively serve as one of the nation’s youngest medical directors on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feeling called to do more after this experience, Lisa left conventional medicine to make an even bigger difference in the world. Now, Lisa uses her unique skill set and expertise to help leaders and organizations all over the world through her speaking, training programs, and her coaching. Her innovative approach integrates medical, complementary modalities, and bridges scientific and spiritual worlds to get to the root of challenges, keeping people stuck and providing them from achieving their greatest potential.
I challenge you to listen to her to think, “I wonder what Dr. Lisa and Andy are going to talk about,” after reading that sentence. If you’ve been here long enough you know where my passion’s locked. Lisa proprietary frameworks and approaches have helped countless leaders step into their truest selves and highest purpose enabling them to live their best lives and leave a lasting impact on the world. With that bio being read, Dr. Lisa, thank you so much for taking that valuable resource that’s limited called time to come spend it with myself and our community.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to see how this unfolds and where we go with this.
As I told you, my first question is always, create this 5 or 10 minutes worth of space if you will to let you pick a spot on your timeline of your life from when you were born to where you are now and help fill in the gaps of that bio with your life journey and what it’s been like for you so far.
Self-Leadership
In terms of self-leadership, one of the most powerful and pivotal moments in my life, as I’m sure many of us who are on this journey would say as well is my equivalent of rock bottom. My rock bottom was unfolded as always in a completely unexpected way. It was a curveball out of nowhere that I never could have anticipated, especially a daughter of Chinese immigrants, so first generation and growing up poor, working in the restaurant and had a very certain mindset and set of beliefs in terms of how I approached my life.
Checking off these boxes that I’m told, “This is what you do to be a successful person. This is what you do to have success in your life.” You and I were talking about, what is our definition of success? Often, especially when we’re little kids, we don’t have the space even to be able to reflect on that. We often take on what we learned from our environment.
With that work hard, push harder, study hard, achieve and check off those boxes mentality, essentially what happened is that I did excelled in school. I got into medical school early. I knew very early on I wanted to help people. The most obvious choice at the time was to become a doctor. I didn’t know any other options, especially with Chinese immigrant parents. That was also their dream because I was a colleague.
Having spent a lot of time in China in my Boeing days and knowing not everything but a good bit about the culture, the whole safe face, how and what you do reflects a lot on the family. That’s extremely important in the culture within China. One of the things they did with a lot of consulting with was air traffic control with China. They had a number of issues from a safety perspective because errors weren’t self-reported because of that whole safe face, present the best that you can mindset within the culture in China.
It wasn’t a good thing to self-report any errors and look for ways to improve processes or things of that nature. I understand a bit about what you’re saying here. Even though you were in the United States, the Chinese culture was being brought with your parents into the United States. I imagine there was a lot of conversation around the dinner table about what you were going to do with your life.
The story that you just shared, where we value and prioritize conformity to other people’s expectations, societal cultural, religious or family. That’s when we start to lose sight of ourselves. It becomes that much more challenging to self-lead in a powerful way because we are measuring ourselves, our self-worth, our value and our identity by all these things that are external to us. Not ever often that intuition, that truth inside of us gets muffled and even muted completely and lose sight of that.
We continue marching on this path that we think that we’re told is supposed to work and should be what we’re supposed to be doing, versus what we’re meant to be doing. Looking back now, I can see that. When we’re in it, it’s so hard to see. For me, what happened is that I learned very quickly. I worked hard, achieved very highly, got into medical, then in residency.
The short version of the story is, I started residency off in crisis. I didn’t know what was going on, but I had swelling in my knee. One thing led to another and eventually, I was diagnosed with an incredibly rare medical condition myself. What is literally one in a million, so 1.8 cases per million in the world, meaning there’s very little data, and very little evidence. All of a sudden, I, who was a doctor, already an MD, supposed to be taking care of other people. Also, with a background in clinical psychology. Now I’m a patient.
Walking to hospitals with no known cure and trying to figure out what to do. Talk about an identity like disrupt. Honestly, at that time, I still hadn’t learned. We joke that doctors are the worst patients but it’s so true. This goes back to self-leadership. When we are taught to prioritize everything and everyone else first, because we’re wanting to help and wanting to serve, which always comes from a good place. If we’re not leading and taking care of ourselves first and foremost, then that is a disservice to everyone involved. The less impact and the less we’re able to serve.
If we are not leading and taking care of ourselves first before others, we are doing a disservice to everyone else.
What happened is at the time, I still hadn’t learned the lesson yet. I was stretching myself thinner. I’m sure the readers can relate. When there’s a lot going on, typically, many of us high achievers, we don’t think to ask for help or support or take time off. Instead, we’re like, “We’ll sleep a little less or we’ll skip lunch and we’ll go to this and do that.” That’s exactly what I did. I tried to figure out my own healthcare and what I was going to do to treat myself during lunch and during all these different moments and just stretch myself thinner.
When it rains and pours. All these different things in my life felt like it started to fall apart. I was getting this lesson very loudly to the point where I eventually was so depleted, burned out, and depressed that I couldn’t get out of bed. That’s how extreme it got. I see it with so many of the clients I work with, and the people that I work with. Especially those that are the highest achieving and the most successful. We can handle a lot and just because we can, doesn’t mean that we should.
My journey was the same. I’m on a self-esteem journey with my life. It was all about people please for me at a young age, as my readers well-known. I talk about it quite a bit. It was all about everybody else, all looking outside, but the motivation behind it was people pleasing in hopes that you would like me per se and fill me up with love because of that friendship of love that I was seeking all the time. I would do anything to help you with that.
As opposed to self-leadership and finding that for myself and self-love. That’s always a problem, whether it’s your profession or self-esteem issues. If it’s always outwardly focused, self-care goes by the wayside then we end up in a ditch all burnt out and everything else. Our journeys may be slightly different but we all end up in that same ditch.
We can only lead ourselves just as we can only love ourselves or care for ourselves. We can only lead other people. The quality to which we can lead other people, love other people and care for other people is directly related to how we are able to do so for ourselves.
When we’re doing it the right way. You found yourself depressed in a ditch. How’d you get yourself out? What happened?
I was so depleted and burned out running the program that I’ve been running for several years that I thought was supposed to live my life. I couldn’t get out of bed. At that point, for any of us who have experienced that before, you basically have 1 or 2 choices. We either completely give up altogether, or you start to seek another way and start to realize there must be another way that’s better than what I’ve learned and what I’ve experienced.
Up until that point, I didn’t have the resources at my disposal that I do now. In terms of even the people, the environment. Our environment is so important in terms of how it shapes us and what we take on from the environment. Whether it be people, places, or even technology. All the different types of environment.
At the time, my environment is what shaped me to reinforce that behavior that I had been executing for 30 plus years of my life until I was at a breaking point of, “There must be something else.” Truthfully, it started with Google because there had no other resources at the time and one thing led to another of, “There must be a different way.” Outside of my training in clinical psychology, of my medical training, which you would think there would be a lot of it there.
Let’s dissect that a little bit because I had that same moment, too. Maybe we can each talk about the ways that it happened for ourselves. There has to be an element of curiosity. I know for myself, I had seen other ways that people had lived what we thought were successful lives. For me, my moment was a failed marriage.
I had a model of my own parents that were married for 61 years before my mom passed away. I had that as my model and sitting there in my ditch going, “How is it after 6 or 7 years of marriage I found myself in this ditch where I’m divorced with two kids? I know there’s a lot of successful marriages out there. What happened? Where’d it go wrong?” I got curious.
There’s got to be a different way of doing things to get that success and what do I need to take ownership of in this problem? Can I identify those things that I need to take ownership of then figure out a different path for myself from a self-leadership perspective to get myself out of this ditch and on a better path?
Would you say we’re on the same boat or you found yourself depressed, can’t get out of bed? You had some curiosity still there going. As you said, there’s that decision point. Either you stay where you are or you do something different and you got some curiosity. You got on the Google and started trying to learn or figure out there’s got to be a different path because I know there are happy people out of life.
Self-Ownership
The self-ownership is so powerful when we’re feeling depleted or depressed. What happens is that we lose hope. Sometimes, that’s because we feel like there’s nothing that we can do. Sometimes that can mean not only looking externally for that validation, but also giving away our power. Part of taking that power back is owning all the things that we’ve been doing and how we’ve been living up until the point that led us there.
We’re blaming anyone else outside of ourselves, we’re also giving away our power to that person or that experience or that industry. When we’re blaming, then we’re not focusing on things that we can control. When we focus on what we can control, what’s within our control, which is our mindset, how we’re approaching things, our perception of things, and what our response and how we’re choosing to live our life, and who we are. That’s what causes the deep fundamental transformation that is so powerful that I experience personally.
I love to help my clients with now because this is what gets to the core. This is what gets to the root of so many challenges. That manifests on a mental emotional and also physical plane that once you get to this route. You can make those shifts there, everything unfolds seemingly magically. At the same time, it’s very clear why because we’re getting to the root of things that sometimes even in medicine or certain industries there can be a more reactive slapping on the band-aid treatment model which can be helpful in certain circumstances.
Part of why I left conventional medicine is because I realized how powerful some of this other work was that brings together the mind, body, and spirit. It gets to the root cause level so that we make transformation and I was my first client, essentially. I had to heal and learn the hard way and what not to do. On top of that, how to help myself out there without medications and procedures. Even as a doctor myself, how to help myself get out there to learn the skills, the mindset, the resources, and the tools at my disposal that I hadn’t even been exposed to, even though I’m a doctor and I have a degree in clinical.
You’re sitting now in a spot where before you found yourself in a ditch, you were a leader. Now you’re a leader again. What is your confidence level like? What is your viewpoint look like and so forth being a leader now? I can’t go on social media anymore these days without going, “Here’s me at 2002 and here’s me at 2022,” pictures.
Let’s use that framework with you now. You’re before and after look as a leader having gone through this fire, so to speak, and getting curious about things and taking ownership. Therefore, keeping the power, as you say for yourself. What does leadership look like for you now, both in the mind and in the heart, versus what it was back before you found yourself in the ditch?
Thank you.
That’s the importance. That’s what we’re talking about here. In order to know and be more confident as a leader of others, to have been a leader of yourself, that’s where the confidence comes from.
When we lead ourselves from a resource state, not from a survival fight or flight state, which we can talk about physiologically why there’s a big difference there. When we lead ourselves from that resource space, we’re so much more grounded in who we are, aligned, can make decisions much more congruent, and also more powerfully impact the people around us. In my mind, true leadership is fostering and guiding other leaders. Not creating followers.
True leadership is about fostering and guiding other leaders, not creating followers.
I always say and I’ve said on this show, the number one job of a leader is to build other leaders. People look at me funny when I say that. They go, “Not leaders by a title or a level of authority. I’m talking about self-leadership.” Number one job of a leader is to help others be self-leaders who then turn around and may not even take a leadership role and have that title and authority within an organization. They’re able to lead a more congruent life with integrity to who they are and who are they born to be and can make a bigger impact in the world.
Leadership has nothing to do with your title. In fact, people with the title are not necessarily the best leavers. I’ve seen that firsthand. I was a medical director in the Bronx during the pandemic and this was after my transformation. It’s ongoing journey, continuing. As someone who’s leading ourselves and leading other people, I feel like it’s imperative for us to continue that self-leadership process, that growth, and that transformation in terms of our life journey.
That also influences our ability to show up as more powerful, inspired, and inspiring leaders and I saw that firsthand. Especially in the crisis during COVID-19 and working on the front lines as a medical director, which in terms of the corporate world, in some ways, essentially was like middle management. There was leaders above me and also, I’m managing on the ground level in terms of the clinics that I was running.
To see the tendency in terms of top-down leadership versus, “This is what you’re supposed to do. This is how you do it.” Versus what I had discovered for myself from leading myself. The power of inspiring and empowering other people to step into their power that then creates that powerful leadership from within as opposed to being enforced from without followers. People that are executing without thinking for themselves are entirely different scenario.
The beauty was that I was able to use some of the skills that I learned from myself to heal myself and to lead myself first in this very unique unusual situation where we were in a crisis during the pandemic to help people on the frontline with what’s the structure of that. Now, in terms of leading other people, clients, and organizations that I work all over the world, for me, it’s about sparking that light inside each individual person.
We each have unique light, unique value, and unique gifts. It’s so often when we are so conditioned and programmed even to muffle that and behind other expectations, rules, and standards. Whatever it may be, this light sometimes dims and sometimes even goes out completely. We lose sight of this unique value. This show is called Generate Your Value. Our unique value as individual beings is within ourselves. The answers are all within ourselves.
If anybody tells us that we should or are supposed to, then that often is a red flag to me at least for us to be aware of. If we use that to override the truth inside ourselves, which is what I talked about in the TEDx talk that I gave. The message there is, “Live your truth and trust your intuition.” The message that we typically get is to forgo all of that because there’s no evidence and not enough data. Therefore, logic, reason, and expert opinion.
I can tell you, thousands of stories of my own, my coaching clients, and all these different people that will defy the odds in terms of all of these things versus the intuition where the truth was coming through. Part of it is, can we inspire and empower people to step into their truth. From there, we can share our unique gifts and shine our unique light then have an even more powerful impact on the world than if we’re conforming to what already has been done and what we’re told we’re supposed to do.
How are we supposed to create? How are we to create any change or innovation or disruption and make the world better or transform the world in any way if we are following what’s already known? Following things as to how they’re already been done. Things are in place for a reason. Yet, at the same time, the power of true leadership is how can you inspire the people that you are leading in a way that lights them up. That then allows them to share their unique gifts and uniquely contribute to whatever it is that you’re working on in a way that’s much more powerful than if we try to keep people in any box of any sort.
Thank you is a phrase you’re preaching to the choir but that’s exactly what this show is about. It’s to try to help people to understand. Leadership is about inspiration and influence. It’s about getting the best out of your people, which is the essence of love versus the essence of fear. When you say, “You shall do this and you shall do that sitting in that chair. Do these processes and these tasks. Do it in such a manner.” You’re coming more from a place of fear.
Love and fear is not Black or White. There’s grayness in between, but it’s more driving from a place of fear to say, “If you don’t do it this way, then you’re out the door.” All the creativity, the innovation and the growth is going to come from me because I’m the important one here. You sit down in your chair. Do as you’re told and you’ll get a paycheck mentality.
If you can come more from a place of innovation, creativity, inspiration, and getting the best out of your people. I understand there’s a decrease in the sense of control of the situation by doing that. Trust and faith has to become a bigger part of your leadership style to do that. I get it. Been there, got the T-shirt but you’re going to get a better outcome. That’s the important thing. You as a leader are going to get first and foremost, judged by your results.
I used to guide my mentees in Boeing and say, “Don’t be afraid to hire smarter people than yourself on your team.” From a fear perspective, that’s going to scare you. From a love perspective, you want that because your number one thing you’re going to be judged on is the results that your team produces for the strategy of the organization.
That is helpful for us to ask ourselves as leaders, especially when we’re leading people. It’s, are we coming from a place of scarcity and fear and wanting to control? Versus, are we coming from a place of possibility and abundance and create them? An analogy that I like to use that can be helpful is that if we have water hose and there’s water running through it. Often, the more we care about something, the more high stakes something is. The more likely we’re wanting to grip tighter because we want it to go well.
We care so much and it’s so important. Ironically, counter-intuitively, our nature is to grip on tighter but what happens to the flow through that water hose as we grip tighter? You may even grip so hard that you cut it off. Sometimes as leaders, one of the highest challenges that we can have as leaders, especially leaders that wanting to make an impact in the world, is we care so much from a good place.
We cut off the flow, especially if we’re doing this with the people on our team that we’re leading. We’re disconnecting them from the creativity from even their flow state because we’re also transferring that fear state, that survival state into them as well. Where they’re operating from is not resource then because there’s a whole phenomenon in terms of what happens in your brain when you’re in any level of stress or fight or flight, called the amygdala hijacked.
You cannot think clearly and rationally. What we’re doing when we do this is we’re not only cutting people off in terms of their creativity and what they can uniquely contribute even beyond what we can imagine. We’re also putting them not in a resource state so that the quality of what they’re producing is not necessarily at the level that it could be.
Even though there’s good or well intentions in it. We care about this subject.
The tighter we hold on and ironically, the more we let go. Not from a place of detachment, but let go. Letting go is more allowing.
Letting go of the path.
We can be so clear.
Not at the destination or where we’re trying to get to and the reasons why we want to get to that destination, but letting go of the path.
Being so clear on the vision and why, our mission and our purpose, then letting go. Anybody who is a business leader knows and even in general in life. When we let go of the how and what the purpose. One of most powerful skills for any leader is the ability to be able to adapt and pivot. That’s what allows us to then be more successful. If we’re so hell bent on one specific path, the likelihood for success is incredibly low. That’s also allowing that letting go of that control that counterintuitively gives us more possibility, more options and more likelihood and probability of success.
The ability to adapt and pivot allows us to be more successful. If we’re so hell-bent on one specific path, the likelihood of success is incredibly low.
Let’s go back to the beginning of our conversation. We decide to get from point A to point B is a straight line, but to go on that straight line means we have to climb over a bunch of mountains and so forth. We end up getting to point B. We got there and our state is the state that you were at. You were in a ditch, so depressed and couldn’t get out of bed, versus a different path. Maybe it was more of a learning path.
Maybe it took you more time to get there or cost you a little bit more money, but you were able to get to the same spot. Your state of being when you got there or maybe lessons that you learned along the way that you were not depressed. You could get out of bed in the morning. It may have taken you a little bit longer to get there, but your path was different. That gets lost on people. It’s not that you reached the destination. It’s a lot of times about the path you took and your state of being when you reached it.
It’s a journey. How many millionaires or billionaires are out there? They got all kinds of money in the bank, three Lamborghinis in the garage and three residences spread around the world. They made it. They got the point B, but then there’s no joy or happiness. There’s no sense of joy out of it because they were so focused on the dude and that shortest path in running over people to make all that money.
They have all these things but they’re empty inside as opposed to maybe going a different path where they still got the three Lamborghinis and everything else but they have a great state of being because of the way that they did it. It had self-love and they went through the internal journey that led them on a different path. Maybe it took a longer time. Maybe it took them 3 or 5 years longer than that goal that they had but they got there and have a better state of being once they got there.
That’s so important distinction. Many of us are more human doings than human being. That’s how celebrities and people who seem to have it all. All of a sudden, we turn around and we don’t understand why they committed suicide because hey must have it and they must be happy. That’s what happens when we do in order to be. When we’re taking actions and thinking that is what’s going to lead us to happiness. We’re doing and achieving. We’re doing all these things externally to achieve that ultimately deep down because we’re wanting to be a certain way.
The power of the work that I do now with my coaching clients and organizations, self-leadership is an inside out job. The most powerful leadership in general. If you to lead yourself, your kids, your team, or your business, the most effective way is from the inside out. When we be first, when we take care of this first, then the doing comes from the being then everything changes. That’s a completely different ball game we’re playing.
I’ve seen it over and over again with highly successful people, leaders, and business owners that I’ve worked with when we make that shift internally. Sometimes, it’s
conscious, strategies, and tasks that I give them. Often, it’s unconscious work that takes them deeper. It takes them into shifting some of these deeply ingrained beliefs programming. Even traumas, hurts, and wounds from childhood often. Once we shift that and the being is solid, aligned, and congruent. We heal that, love ourselves, and care for ourselves and even forgive ourselves and accept ourselves fully. From there, what we do from that place and everything becomes so much easier.
All of a sudden, it’s like, “I can’t believe it, all these opportunities are coming. Suddenly everything’s easier. I feel better. I’m getting better results than I ever could imagine. How did I not learn this before?” We don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know it until we’ve experienced it or someone opens our eyes to this possibility, which is part of the point of why we’re even on this episode together to be able to share some of these ideas with people because we’re not taught that growing up and even as adults.
It’s so important for us to nurture this interstate first. There’s so many nuances and details in terms of how to do so. When we’re be first then the doing. There’s so much more E’s, so much less effort, and so much better results. Even better than you can imagine. I tell you thousands of stories as evidence to show you and to prove it. It’s just a beautiful place to be to operate.
Let me ask you this question. I agree with everything you said and I’ve got stories to tell, too. What do you feel like is the state of doing in today’s world in the state of being? Given everything that’s going on in the world and to include what’s going on with technology. If we were to consider to like yin and yang, what would you say is your opinion going on in the state of doing and the state of being?
I ask you that question because a couple of weeks ago, I had an episode come out with this panel discussion where that was my impetus for putting the panel together is this question. You weren’t on the panel. I’d still like to get your view as well. Where do we think we are with these things in the world?
What I’ve seen is that often whenever there’s a dichotomy or any polarity, when they’re separation, love and hate, peace and war, that is what creates more conflict, more turmoil, and more suffering. Between being and doing, what often happens in terms of how it shows up in our day-to-day life, especially with people who are high achievers, successful, and the leaders that I work with. We feel like there’s a conflict as an either over a situation. Either I’m doing or I’m being.
When we think that it’s an either or situation, that disconnects us from the harmony when they’re both integrated. That’s a premise of a lot of the work that I do now, where it’s not either or. It’s how do you bring the strengths of both? First and foremost, on a conscious and unconscious level, recognize that they’re part of the same spectrum like love and hate are part of the same spectrum. Can you elevate to being a conscious being with choice? Where then you’re able to flow in any given moment, anywhere along this spectrum.
That’s what I see and I notice with working with super successful people. The disconnect and the missing piece is often in our behavior. In our day-to-day, we don’t recognize and even realize that this is all a spectrum. That being and doing can then come in harmony. It’s when we integrate it and harmonize the two and notice that the more we be, the better the doing is.
Also, the doing can allow better being and that flow and harmony, that natural ebb and flow that happens in nature. We see it all over in nature. That’s the truth of reality and that takes some work to get there at times because we’re used to operating from this place. Even a simple day-to-day example, we can think that we’re either working hard and pushing hard or we’re doing nothing.
The doing versus the being. There’s a conflict in terms of understanding how these could come together. We feel like we have to pick and choose at any given moment. When we don’t realize that there’s harmony between the two, that’s when there’s a disservice and we can feel like we’re being pulled in different directions.
I agree with everything you said. I would say in that element of choice, we need to understand the concept that it’s integrated in ebbs and flows between the two. In that state of choice, we also have to understand and to choose which one we need to lead the given phase of our life or season of our life to get us through the season or to the next step. Sometimes do needs to take the lead and sometimes be needs to take the lead. You can look at that at a daily level or a weekly level or a yearly or even a decade level when you’re looking at a season of life. First is to get that concept together that it’s integrated. It’s not an or as you beautifully said but it’s integrated. There are times when to lead one way the other.
It occurred to me because we’re talking on a high level. It may not a big experience. It maybe is too theoretical. The thought that comes to mind and an example, I’m sure all of us can relate to. Have you ever noticed the difference between when you’re clear and you’re in a resource state? Let’s say you’re even in a flow state. What allows a flow state that we talk about in peak performance at all? It’s the being, that presence, and the state first, then everything.
All of a sudden, something that you could have been working on for hours, for days, or struggling to figure out. It flows out of you and it completed quicker, more easily, more effectively, and higher quality than ever before. I’m sure many of us have experienced that, versus when we’re trying to force it or make it happen or I’m supposed to do this. You’re going hours, days, and weeks and you still haven’t gotten any more clarity on this project that you’re working on. You’re not making any progress.
This is one real life example that can demonstrate the difference between if you’re doing just for the sake of doing, versus if you are truly even for a moment pausing enough to shift the being state so that it impacts the doing and you’re able to do so much better, quicker and with so much more ease than ever before. That’s the power of what we’re talking about to give people a real life example that they may be able to relate to.
The premise I believe. The way I would answer the question I asked you and the reason why I did the panel discussion was that I believe with AI coming on board and things that are happening in technology-wise, we’re coming out of it, let’s again look at the 100,000 foot level. We’re coming out of an era of due in the business world. Starting with Henry Ford and the assembly line and the Model T in trying to get scale out of a business.
How do I make a lot of money with a car? I have to learn how to mass produce it to sell it to a lot of people so a lot of money comes into the company and I get rich. It started with that way of doing business that we’ve had 50 years ago or 60 years ago or 70 years ago or how many years it’s been of due in this scale ability. It’s required.
At first, a lot of human power and some machine power. As time went on in this era of due, it was more machine and human being guiding machine. Now we’ve reached the stage of technology being now machines can think about these low level logical things on their own. Therefore, we’re getting to a criticality point of our will shortly about the human beings and being able to make a wage to earn the money to be able to put a roof over ahead, food on the table and have children. An American way of life.
It’s got to force the issue on humanity that we need to lead with the be because that’s where the creativity comes from. The value of being a human being versus a machine with some simple logical learning skills can do things. That’s where humans can start playing in the business world and still make those wages and still have the economy and the GDP in the strength as a country and so forth that all the politicians talk about can still exist.
We as human beings need to start doing more of this integral work to be, as you say, in the state of flow, creativity, and being to lead this be-do integration and dynamic such that we can continue humanity in this world that we’ve created in a way that it works. With the green back, being a way that we can keep us physically going as humanity.
I know some people reading, sometimes they can be hard to stomach or even some skepticism that comes in. I will say from my personal experience, you and I both are very left-brained, science-based and very practical. Very do my entire life. I achieved very highly from that paradigm. What I’m saying and what you and I are both saying and sharing here to even open up that seed of possibility within the viewers, within you. You’re welcome to share it if that was the same for you.
For me, let’s say this is what I was able to achieve in terms of my level of success as I define it. Even my inner experience, what’s happening, and what’s possible for me here. These are the results that I got from doing and of this whole high achieving checking off the box opposed paradigm. It was very high based on most people’s standards, one of the youngest medical directors, and early to medical school.
Both on people’s standards, doing great. Once I made the shift and with a lot of inner work, that’s not easy or comfortable. A lot of shifts within me to get myself out of that ditch, as you call it. The stage to heal from within and address things. Taking full ownership. Finally learning to lead myself in a way that I never learned in medical school or otherwise. That’s now, all of a sudden, the lid is off in terms of possibilities and the things that have been possible and the results that have been created as a result of shifting into this.
To put it out there, if you haven’t experienced it, it’s hard to maybe fathom. This is a new paradigm. It’s a new ballgame altogether. To give you an idea of what can be possible, because everything that’s unfolded since that has shifted for me. I’ve done that inner work. It has been, you might call a miracle or improbable and impossible. Yet, it’s happening and unfolding. Not only that, and even more importantly, I’m so much more aligned, clear, and congruent in terms of who I am and my truth that I feel so much more fulfilled no matter what is going on with me and withing outside of me.
On top of that, able to handle and navigate anything that comes up no matter what it is now that this is solid inside. It doesn’t matter what comes up, what challenges. Life is full of change. That’s one of the things. The only things that is certain is that life will bring change. As Tony Robbins says, “The quality of our life is directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty that we are comfortable with.”
The quality of our lives is directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty we are comfortable with.
Especially as leaders and as business leaders, and in a time when there’s a lot of turmoil in the world, when there’s markets changing and all these things. The greater we’re able to be solid, aligned, and congruent internally and grounded no matter what, then the better we can handle and navigate any situation that comes up to us. For me, that is true leadership. The ability to navigate, pivot, and adapt from a resource state to lead and empower other people especially when times they’re stressful or challenging.
The State Of Joy
You’re talking about the state of joy. What do you want to be like? I want to be happy. You don’t have that understanding that happiness is flowing. Happiness is a finite state. I can sit down and have a nice Italian dinner and I’m happy. The next day, it’s all gone away. Whereas, having a state of joy. To reach a state of joy means that you’ve done that internal work as you elegantly stated. All that aspect is that I can be at a state of joy, which is ever-flowing. I can handle anything that’s thrown at me from a self-leadership perspective because of that work that I’ve done to reach that state of joy because I know it’s important in life. It’s not what’s in your bank account.
Not at all. What I found in terms of the clients I’ve worked with that are successful business owners and leaders. We think we want to be joyful or happy all the time but that’s not reality of the state of things. Often what people are searching for more than that, because emotions fluctuate depending on what’s going on. That’s natural being a human. It’s peace. It’s when we do this inner work, when we feel truly alive, live your truth /like I shared in the TEDx talk. That’s when we have this level of inner peace.
When we know, trust and have enough certainty within ourselves, regardless of how much uncertainty there is outside of ourselves. No matter what is going on, that’s when we can have this level of inner peace that allows us not only to be more resource in any given situation. Allows us to navigate more skillfully and more masterfully so that we can overcome and move through any challenge in a much more powerful way with much better results and closer to better than we ever could have imagined before.
For me, peace is a direct result of deeply knowing yourself.
To be aware of it in the first place, which some of us are not, because we’re so used to measuring ourselves by these external expectations or guidelines or standards. To be aware is the first step. The second step is acceptance. Can we accept ourselves who we truly are all the parts of ourselves? Even forgive ourselves and give ourselves full permission to be who we truly are as opposed to any mask that we think we need to in order to be a certain way for other people, but then that disconnects us from our truth, our light, our power and our unique value.
The unique value that only us and only you can provide to the world. You cannot provide that value or share that value unless you step fully into your light and your power. Accept yourself fully and give your personal self-permission to do so all the evidence to the contrary or no matter what anyone else is saying, anyone else’s opinions or expectations.
You cannot provide or share value unless you step fully into the light of your power, accept yourself fully, and permit yourself to do so.
Back to your comment on you don’t know what you don’t know. In my business coaching, that’s what I go after my clients. From a business perspective, you get much more than that 3% bump in revenue when you go after what you don’t know you don’t know. The hurdle I have to go over is to show client that we’re talking about is what you don’t know that you don’t know about yourself is where we have to go first before we can go after the business. That’s what scares off most people.
It’s not easy and it’s not comfortable. I will say that it’s so worth it and I’m sure you will say the same. In terms of this work, it’s so worth it. Experience it.
You’re not going to find the piece that you talked about until you do it. I’m looking at the clock on the wall, I could go on hours over particularly a couple of bottles of wine with you on this topic. Unfortunately, we’ve got to bring you to a close. If people wanted to learn more about you as a person, as your business, what you do, and the impact that you make in the world. What’s the best way they can reach out to you?
Lisa Yeung MD on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. I invite people to connect with me because this is my passion and my purpose. That’s why I shared what I did very vulnerably and openly on the TEDx stage. I invite people to watch that to inspire them and share with me. Send me a message about how that impacts you or what you thought about what comes up for you based on this conversation that Andy and I have had.
We’re doing this because we see and believe it. We want to help other people just as much as possible. I invite people to connect with me and follow me. Even more importantly, send me a message to see how it impacted you or ask me any questions because I wish when I was in that place, that rock bottom that I had resources to go to. I’m a resource for everyone out there and anyone out there that wants to learn more or is curious or maybe has a certain reaction to things that we said because we’re all here in it to help each other.
We’re all interconnected. That’s part of that what you don’t know you don’t know thing. I forewarned you, here comes that last question we ask of every guest on the show. Dr. Lisa Yeung, that question is, what do the words generate your value mean to you?
We talked about in terms of the spark inside of ourselves. In order to generate any value, especially in order to generate our most authentic value and our unique truth and share our unique gifts. We first have to light that spark, that unique light that is in within us of who we truly are, the essence of who we are with our unique skills, unique experiences, and unique expertise. The unique being that is within us then we can generate value that impacts the rest of the world.
It goes back to everything that we talked about. In terms of how can we tune in to who we truly are, the truth inside of us, get guidance and support when needed so that we that flame that light is as bright as it possibly can. That is what will generate the most value more than doing anything else in terms of conforming to what other people expect.
I believe the universe is intentional. My favorite words in the English language is intentional. There was intentionality behind the creation of you in this world, but the maximum value that you can deliver is proportional to how much you understand the intentionality behind that act by the universe and what the universe created you to be. We don’t come with an owner’s manual. This journey as a human being on earth is about writing your owner’s manual and going deep inside of yourself and understanding the intentionality behind the universe.
Also, who we are. How many of us pause long enough in our busy days to reflect on who we are and who we want to be as opposed to what we want to do?
Your intuition will tell you that, but you got to be quiet and be because your intuition doesn’t have a megaphone.
It whispers.
Are you being quiet enough every single day or periods are quiet to tune into the intuition and let it be a guiding force in your life? We’re here every Tuesday with a great guest like Dr. Lisa to talk on elements of self-leadership, leadership success, do and be. A lot of these key words that you read and these golden nuggets that have been thrown around between the two of us that you can use in in your life and in your business to find that state of peace and that state of joy in your life.
Hit that subscribe button, come back and read what other guests have to say with their life story and how they used self-leadership skills to get to where they are. I guarantee you, they may have been going on that straight line for a while like Dr. Lisa did. They had to take a pause and figure things out and start doing a curlicue. All kinds of stuff to get to where she is now to be at a much better state of being in her life compared to where she was earlier in her life and her life journey. That being said, have a great day and a great week. We’ll see you next time on the show.
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About Dr. Lisa Yeung
Dr. Lisa Yeung is a physician and medical director turned Integrative Coach, TEDx and keynote speaker whose unconventional path has been shaped by her personal journey of self-discovery and healing from burnout and depression. The wisdom, skills and experience gained from her personal transformation allowed her to more powerfully and effectively serve as one of the nation’s youngest medical directors on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeling called to do more after this experience, Lisa left conventional medicine to make an even bigger difference in the world.
Now, Lisa uses her unique skillset and expertise to help leaders and organizations all over the world through her speaking, training programs and coaching. Her innovative approach integrates medical and complementary modalities and bridges the scientific and spiritual worlds to get to the root of challenges keeping people stuck and preventing them from achieving their greatest potential. Lisa’s proprietary frameworks and approaches have helped countless leaders step into their truest selves and highest purpose, enabling them to live their best lives and leave a lasting impact on the world.
