333: Give Yourself Permission To Have the Career You Want with Mitch Matthews

Feeling successful on paper but disconnected from your work at mid-career? You are not alone. 

In this episode, I sit down with Mitch Matthews, success coach and host of the Dream Think Do podcast, to unpack what real career change looks like when you stop waiting for permission and start creating it yourself.

We talk candidly about that moment when you are busy, accomplished, and respected, yet no longer energized by the work you are doing. Mitch shares a powerful personal story about accepting a promotion that looked perfect on paper but felt wrong almost immediately. Instead of making a reckless leap, he honored his responsibilities while quietly building a new path through small, intentional experiments.

This conversation is especially relevant if you are a mid-career professional seeking greater career clarity, questioning what is next, or feeling stuck in a job that no longer fits. We explore how progress does not require a dramatic exit or a master plan. It requires permission, curiosity, and consistent action.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why permission at mid-career is an internal decision, not something granted by a boss or organization
• How small, low-risk experiments can help you test new career directions without blowing up your current role
• The 15-minute rule and how five short blocks a week can compound into more than 60 hours of focused progress each year
• Why the safest place to explore new ideas is often outside the high-stakes environment of your day job
• What it looks like to lead without having all the answers and why saying “I don’t know, let’s figure it out together” builds trust
• How to use AI as a practical thinking partner instead of a buzzword or replacement for judgment
• Why automation is increasing the value of authenticity, clarity, and human leadership
• How to spot perfectionism when it is disguising itself as procrastination
• Why starting small and messy creates more durable career change than waiting for the perfect plan

Mitch is also sharing his free training, Finding Time for Your Next Chapter, designed to help you carve out focused time for what matters most in this stage of your career.

Access it at mitchmathews.com/time and use coupon code GPS for free access.

Connect with Mitch Matthews

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year, New Momentum Check
• 1:40 Meet Mitch Matthews And His Mission
• 4:06 The Bad-Fit Job Wake-Up Call
• 7:31 Redefining Permission In Your Career
• 11:57 Safe-To-Fail Experiments Outside Work
• 15:47 The 15-Minute Rule For Progress
• 18:24 The Chocolate Story And Finding Fire
• 22:01 Permission To Not Have All The Answers
• 26:11 Leading Through Questions, Not Personas
• 30:11 AI, Automation, And Craving Authenticity

Transcript

John Neral: 0:00

A new year brings new goals, new dreams, and new ambitions. And look, now that we're at the end of the month, you may find yourself losing momentum or sinking back into the same old habits that got you stuck and feeling unfulfilled in the first place. But don't despair. This is not a sprint. It is your race to run at whatever pace you need. And it's one of the reasons why I asked Mitch Matthews to join me this week. If there is something holding you back from getting the results you want in your career, what would be different if you actually gave yourself permission to learn, dream, think, be challenged, and even fail? In this episode, Mitch will share with us what it means to give ourselves permission and a whole lot more. So let's get started. Now my guest this week is Mitch Matthews. Mitch is a success coach, keynote speaker, and the creator of the top 1% podcast, Dream Think, Do. Through the podcast and his coaching, Mitch helps high-achieving leaders and entrepreneurs dream bigger, think better, and do more of what they were put on the planet to do. He's been honored to interview some of the most influential thinkers on the planet, from best-selling authors like Brendan Burchard, Michael Hyatt, and Jamie Kern Lima to Oscar winners, elite athletes, and world-class entrepreneurs. And my friends, if you did not get a chance to read Jamie Kern-Lima's book, Worthy, that she published last year, I want to invite you to get that. That book is an incredible read. Now, as a speaker and elite success coach, Mitch has also spent two decades working with leaders from organizations like Nike, NASA, Disney, and United Airlines, where he helps leaders clarify their purpose and lead with impact. Mitch is also the creator of the Authority Bridge, a high-touch coaching experience that helps seasoned professionals build a coaching and speaking business that's aligned, strategic, and legacy-worthy. Mitch lives a highly caffeinated life in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife Melissa, and they have two wildly creative sons. Mitch graciously offers a free training to all of you in this episode with a special discount code GPS. I will link up to this in the show notes, but you will hear more about this training toward the end of the episode. So don't forget to go and check the show notes for a link and that coupon code to the free training. Thank you very much, Mitch. All right, my friends, let's get into it. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Mitch Matthews. Mitch Matthews, welcome to the podcast. It is great to have you here today.

Mitch Matthews: 3:42

Thank you, John. It is an honor. Love what you're doing, and uh it's great to be here.

John Neral: 3:46

Well, right back at you. And uh I appreciate all of the back and forth we've had to try to get you on here. I know we had a couple scheduling things and stuff, but that's just because you're out there doing some amazing work. Yeah. And uh excited to talk about this whole idea with you today about what it means for mid-career professionals to ask for permission. Yes. All right, but before we get there, what was your mid-career moment?

Mitch Matthews: 4:10

I love this question. And uh of course there's been many, but when I think about the theme of your show and uh what you talk with so many amazing people about, uh, that moment for me was I had been in the pharmaceutical industry for about a decade and uh really had a lot of success, had a lot of fun. Um, it had been a good fit for me. I'd been in the the sales end of things, got promoted into the training department, which was a great fit, really enjoyed things, and then I got a promotion, and within a day, I'd figured out I'd moved into a bad fit job. And I don't know if you've ever had that moment, but everything had looked great on paper, but literally within 24 hours, I just knew it. And I would have loved to say that I could take a big blind leap of faith and quit that job and go do something I was passionate about. Uh, but I I joke, but it's absolutely true. We were living a sitcom life. My wife was staying home with our boys at the time, so we were in a single income, two children, oppressive mortgage situation. So I couldn't just quit that bad fit job. I had to stay with it. And I did. I committed to bringing excellence, um, you know, figuring out a way to get the job done. But I had to find a way to also fuel my soul and find what was next. And uh really, for me, it was two years of experimenting on the side with some of the things that I've been passionate about my whole life, uh, and really kind of waking up a dream of an entrepreneurial uh, you know, track and journey of starting our own business. And so I did that. I started a business on the side of that bad fit job of coaching and speaking, and I was able to build that. And I thought it was going to be about a five-year thing to get to the place where I could replace my income and do it with confidence and boldness and have it be a great fit, but uh a lot of hard work, a lot of prayer, some duct tape. Um, and we were able to do that in two years. So that that bad fit job uh was painful in the beginning. Um, I I wouldn't wish it on anybody, but at the same time, I wouldn't give it up for anything because it woke me up to what I was supposed to be doing.

John Neral: 6:26

Yeah. Yeah, never underestimate the power of prayer and the power of duct tape.

Mitch Matthews: 6:31

Right, exactly. Those two together, unstoppable combination. That's exactly right.

John Neral: 6:38

Exactly. So, Mitch, what you just shared in terms of finding yourself in a bad fit job is certainly not uncommon for a lot of mid-career professionals. So if you take us back to that time and you recognize you're not in the best place and you've got all the responsibilities of being the primary income for your family and wanting to take care of your family and all, where do you start to give yourself permission to be a little bolder?

Mitch Matthews: 7:08

Yeah, I love that. And and permission is so important because uh, like you and I have talked about permission, we are in a permission-based culture. And with permission, oftentimes um we we think that somebody else has to give us permission, right? Um, in school, that happens. We get picked for classes, we get picked for teams. Um, you know, in college, same thing. We have to wait for somebody to give us permission to come to their school, all those things. Uh, you know, in our jobs, oftentimes we have to wait till somebody gives us permission to have a certain position, you know, all of those things. So permission is one of those things that we are prepared to walk out. But when it comes to these kinds of conversations, this is when we have to remember to give ourselves permission. And uh you can't wait for somebody else to give you permission to explore what's next. And that's that's what I had to do. I had to give myself permission to say, wait, I can't wait for somebody to you know hand me that next job or offer me that next position. I had to say, what are some things that I'd love to do? What are some things I'd love to try? And that's where the permission started for me. Um, I had to go back and inventory what are my strengths? What are the things that I love to do? What are the things that I naturally do? When I thought back to my positions that I'd really thrived in, I had to think like, what was at the core of what I was doing? And I realized uh, you know, I was really good at building relationships, delivering excellence, but boy, I was at my best when I was encouraging others, when I was drawing out their best. And it's funny because on a particular bad day, uh, you know, and I'd love to say it was all, especially the, you know, the realizing that I wanted to be a coach and a speaker and all those things, I would love to say it was all my epiphany, but you can't do permission alone. Um, and so I was on this journey of inventorying what I was good at and and what I enjoyed and where I flowed. But on a particularly bad day, I came home and my wife put a magazine in front of me and she said, This is what you do. And she pointed at a particular article. And it was an article about a really successful entrepreneur in an industry that I had no interest in, no understanding for. And I've said, Honey, I don't get it. What are you what are you talking about? She's like, Oh no, not that, not that main article. It's the sidebar article. And I saw this sidebar article about this entrepreneur's coach and their work together and what the coach had done for and with this entrepreneur to, you know, kind of draw out their best, get clarity, help them to put a plan together, all those kinds of things. She's like, that's what you do. You are so good at that. That's what you naturally do. That's what you do at work, that's what you do at church, that's what you do in our community. I'm like, you know what? You're right. And at that point, I'll be honest, John, like, I didn't know coaching was even a thing. Like, I didn't know that that was a job. I didn't know that that was a business. Um, and so you know, again, you have to give yourself permission to start exploring, but remember, don't do it alone.

John Neral: 10:21

What I appreciate about that is that there's this opportunity in front of us, right? That when we give ourselves permission, we can kind of show up and be open to these new opportunities and explore what could be there.

Mitch Matthews: 10:36

Yep.

John Neral: 10:38

What I'm curious about though, Mitch, is that for a mid-career professional who works in an organization where they are not allowed to fail?

Mitch Matthews: 10:50

Yeah.

John Neral: 10:51

Okay. That it's high pressure, high demand. I'm sure from your work in pharma, you get that, right?

Mitch Matthews: 10:57

Yep, absolutely.

John Neral: 10:59

What is the shift that a mid-career professional needs to make when they're bombarded at work about how you can't fail? Yeah. And yet they're thinking about doing something different or or changing what they're doing. Yeah. Where now they're like, well, maybe I can give myself permission to fail. How does that work?

Mitch Matthews: 11:19

I I love that. And I think that that is that's so grounded, John, because I think uh sometimes when you hear personal development, it's kind of the airy fairy, uh, you know, uh little ponies kind of stuff. And you're exactly right, exactly right. Uh, you know, your audience especially has to deliver. I am sure your audience is committed to delivering results, delivering excellence. Absolutely. And I I so needed to continue to do that in that bad fit job. And so one of the things that I talk about, especially when it comes to permission, is there are ways to give yourself permission within your job, within your career. But in some ways, the easier place to start with giving yourself this kind of permission to start exploring is outside of work. Um, giving yourself the the permission to say, hey, what are some experiments that I could do outside my day job? Now, I will say with a caveat that I also know that I didn't have a ton of free time when I was in that bad fit job. So if I would have heard that advice, I might have exact, you know, immediately said, whoa, whoa, I don't have time for a you know a mountain retreat. I don't have time to go to Fiji and sit at a beach and experiment there. And I'd be saying, absolutely. My biggest uh you know recommendation for people is to find 15 minutes, 15 minutes a day. Because oftentimes when I'm coaching and working with people, I'll say, you know, you probably can't find an extra week somewhere. You can't find scads and scads of just spare time laying around. But could you find 15 minutes? And people will often say, well, maybe I could find 15 minutes, you know, each day. And I'll say, hey, just five days a week, 15 minutes, five days a week. What's amazing about that is if you do the math, I'm not a math elite, so I had to do this math many times. Um, but if you give yourself 15 minutes a day, just five days a week, over the course of the year, that's 60 hours. It doesn't feel like a lot at the time, but it's more than a full work week uh for most people, um, to be able to do some experiments. And those experiments can be hey, what's something I can intentionally listen to? You know, your podcast is a great example, you know, somebody spending just a little bit of time developing themselves, you know, finding something that might inspire them, encourage them, all those things. Who's a coffee that you can have intentionally? Somebody that fuels you, somebody that's doing something interesting, something that maybe charges you up, uh, maybe you're something you're curious about, who's something you can learn from. I think, you know, in our day and age, we have the ability to find mentors, and some of those can be real tangible mentors, some of those can be virtual mentors, um, to be able to say, all right, what are those 15-minute things? But I'll give you a great example of somebody who did this. Uh, Sean Askinosi is somebody who had my who I had on my podcast, DreamThink Do. And Sean uh was a winning, wildly successful trial attorney. And um, you just couldn't beat him. He was he was flawless uh in his delivery, in his strategy, in his tactic, but he knew deep down he was losing his fire. Um, he couldn't, he didn't want to admit that, he didn't want to acknowledge it, but in some ways he knew he needed to start doing something to try to relight that fire because he wasn't losing, it wasn't showing up in the courtroom, but he knew the foundations was cracking. And so he just started giving himself permission to do some experiments. He actually did some night classes in things that were outside of his normal work, like he took some cooking classes. Um, that's where he started. He thought, hey, I used to like to cook uh when I had time to do that, maybe you know, relighting the fire there. And what he found out was he was not good at cooking, John. He was like, No, okay, this is not good, right? But one of those nights, they worked on chocolate, and he realized, whoa, I love chocolate, but I'm actually pretty good at that. And so he then took another class, took an online course, and just started to experiment with chocolate. And what was really interesting was he really enjoyed it and finding some enjoyment and satisfaction in something outside of his work did start to light that fire again. But as he continued to experiment with chocolate, he also started to dig into the industry and started to realize that there was a lot of injustice within the industry. And so he took a vacation with his daughter to go and meet with some growers, some cocoa cocos bean growers, and he started to have uh a fire for the industry and the people that were in the industry and the people that were further down the chain, and not, you know, not the big business, but the growers. And um, what's amazing now is fast forward through a series of 15-minute experiments, he uh now has Askinosi chocolate, which is one of Oprah's favorite chocolates. Oh, yeah. Yes, in his story, you know, that passion turned into something where he now does chocolate differently. He partners with the growers and has open book finances. Um, so they actually get to profit share with Sean as his company grows. So he found his heart for justice, met something new, um, and now he's having wild success. And and when you talk with Sean, you can see the fire is fully lit. And for him, you know, he did it the way your listeners would do it. He didn't chuck his responsibilities, he didn't drop off in the way that he delivered in the courtroom. He continued to do that until he found that next thing, and he did that with excellence.

John Neral: 17:04

Uh that's such a great story. Yeah. That that is really, really good. And what I what I like about it is, and especially when you talk about 15 minutes a day, five days a week, which is it's you got to give yourself that time, right? You have to give yourself that time to just allow yourself the space to figure out what's gonna be next. All right. So here's my question. We saw AI completely exponentially change the way we do things. Right. Okay. And a lot of conversations I have with my coaching clients and in my work, there is an urgency, but also a necessity that AI is then the go-to. So whether it's Chat GPT or Copilot or Claude or whatever it is that they're using, right? Yep. AI is gonna be the thing. It's gonna optimize your resume, it's gonna change your LinkedIn profile, it's gonna build you a job search strategy, it's gonna help you figure out all the stuff that's going on at work and everything like that. As I was preparing for our conversation, this whole idea about asking for permission to not have all the answers struck me really hard. Because in a day and age where we're felt like we have to have all of the answers at our fingertips, yeah. How do you help your clients slow down and give themselves permission for it to be a little messy or to not have all the answers so they can do exactly what you asked them to do, which is to dream bigger, think better, and do more.

Mitch Matthews: 18:53

Yeah, I love that. So um let's let's back up with the permission to not have all the answers. Um, I think this is wildly important, especially for your leaders, um, because I think as leaders, we feel tremendous pressure to always have the answers, right? Uh to always have the solutions. And and that's a big part of why we got the job that we got that we're in, right? That we've delivered. Uh, we have brought the goods, uh, we have gotten the results. And so as a leader, oftentimes the way we feel like, you know, hey, the way that we brought results in the past is the way that we need to continue to bring results in the future. And as a leader, but this also applies to being a parent, a spouse, a friend. Um, some of the ways that we can bring the most value is to not, in fact, have all the answers, but to draw those answers out of others. And what I love, especially in this day and age, and I'm glad you brought up AI because it's it is definitely the elephant in the room. Heck, it's probably three elephants in the room, you know. Uh let's just be honest. And we're all Figuring it out, right? It's it's a little bit like you know, COVID a few years ago. Um, it was the first time we were all dealing with the same massive problem all at the same time, right? Everybody has problems, everybody has issues, but COVID was one of the first times where almost everybody on the planet was dealing with the same thing. AI falls into that same category. And you could you could identify it as a problem, you could identify it as an opportunity. I think it's both, right? So part of it is the perspective to say, okay, what are we open to? I don't want to stay blind to anything. I don't want to be offended or scared because when we're offended, when we're scared, we're often blind to you know some of the solutions that are right there in front of us, all those things. But as leaders, yeah, part of the way we're tempted to think we bring value is to have all the answers. But really the best way is to bring to bring value by asking questions to draw out the best from our team and those around us. So one of the one of the questions that I love to equip leaders on, especially in this subject of permission not to have all the answers, is if a team member comes to you and says, Hey, what should we do? Right? Or what's the answer here? Or what's the next step? The the one of the most powerful questions is one of the most simple questions, is it's a phrase and then a question. I don't know, but let's figure it out together. Right. And what that does is that actually holds the person that you're talking to as capable, right? Which is a huge signal. Um, but then it also invites them into the solution and makes them not completely dependent on you, but also it it does allow for new opportunities, new ways to explore those next things, right? So when it comes to AI, especially to be able to say, hey, as leaders, we're all navigating this together. And it's that thing of being able to go, I don't know, I don't know exactly what the solutions are here, but let's dive in, let's figure it out together. And what's interesting, I think, as team members hear that, right? Uh it's I I know for me, I was tempted, especially as you know, I moved up in pharma, but then also moved, you know, we built our own organization. You know, there was always the temptation for you know what what people say to maintain a persona, which is you know Latin for a mask, and that is to fake it, you know, kind of that fake it till you make it, but you know that fake it till you make it. Generally, when somebody's trying to maintain a persona, the only person that believes the person persona is working is the person hiding behind the persona, right? And I think a leader, oftentimes, those leaders that try to say, I'll just make up an answer, I'll just make a guess, right? Almost everybody knows. It's like, okay, that's maybe you're not as confident as you think you are, or maybe you shouldn't be as confident as you appear to be, right? When we offer that that phrase to be able to say, hey, I don't know, but let's figure it out together. That actually builds confidence, that builds trust, that builds connection. Um, but it also gives you permission to continue to explore what might need what might be next.

John Neral: 23:18

And thank you for that. Thank you for that reframing as well, because yeah, we don't always have all the answers. We're not supposed to have all the answers. Exactly right. You know, we're exactly right to have them. Yeah.

Mitch Matthews: 23:27

And and some of our best, I know for our company now, you know, we have a full training company where we do coaching and speaking and online training. And some of the best solutions that we've come, you know, come across, you know, developed ourselves, all of those things. We're generally on the other side of saying, yeah, I don't know what to do, but but who could we be learning from? What's that next step? What might that next step be? How do we figure this out together? Um, and you know, you mentioned I've got a great team. It's like, hey, why not trust them to actually, you know, to draw out some of the solutions that they see too? So it's it's a it's a powerful thing, especially for somebody like me that's a recovering perfectionist. Oh boy. Um, you know, that being able to say, I don't know, but let's figure it out together is so freeing.

John Neral: 24:15

Yeah, nice. What are you most excited about for 2026 professionally?

Mitch Matthews: 24:21

I love it. I I do think we are in many ways uh facing a blank canvas, which is an exciting time. Um, I'm glad you brought up AI because I think that we are uh moving into a season um in leadership, but also in products and services and all of those things where we're gonna be able to automate at a level that we've never been able to do it before. But the thing I think I'm most excited about for 2026, and who knows after this, but at least for this year, I think with that increased chance and opportunity for automation, there's gonna be an increased longing for authenticity. And so I'm really looking forward to exploring that and setting up opportunities and events and services that actually pull people back into full connection and true authenticity. Because I don't know about you, but um AI is powerful, we're using it in so many different areas. Uh, but boy, if you spend so much time there, it starts to feel like all you're eating is cotton candy. Um, and I, you know, it's like I long for a good steak. We went to a rodeo this weekend, John. We went to a rodeo, so we we went for a rodeo meal before, and so we had steaks and we had just like potatoes and all of this stuff we don't normally eat, I suppose. And it just felt real, it felt tangible. And it's I think people are longing for a little steak, you know what I mean? Whether whether people eat or uh you know eat red meat or not, right? It's that thing of I think this is a year where people are longing for true connection on authenticity. So that's something I'm excited about exploring.

John Neral: 26:03

I wholeheartedly agree. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you on that. Um, Mitch, I've so enjoyed this conversation. As we start to wrap up here, for the people who are listening, what advice would you give them to help them build their mid-career GPS to whatever's next for them in their career?

Mitch Matthews: 26:19

I love it. Um, one of the things I would say, and I mentioned this, I'm a recovering perfectionist, John. So uh, and and what's interesting about perfectionism is it tends to be misunderstood. A lot of people think, oh, a perfectionist, their kitchen is well organized, their home could be on the cover of El Decor, their their desk is everything's in its spot, but but perfectionists, we're pile people. Um, we we tend to like there's a pile, you can't quite see it. My camera's set up in a specific way, so you can't, but there's a pile right at the corner of my desk. Um, because I'm a fact recovering perfectionist. Because what perfectionists do is we tend to go to a meeting, bring a couple of papers back, set it on that pile saying I don't have the perfect place to put it. But once I do, that's where it's going. And then that pile grows. Somebody's gonna come see at your desk. You move that pile under your desk or in a box or in a bag, or all of those things, right? Perfectionists also we need deadlines because nothing's ever perfect. So we need that deadline to just get that final project done and send it, all those things. So, as a perfectionist, I bring that up because a lot of people think they're procrastinators, but actually they're perfectionists. And I bring that up especially when it comes to the subject of experimenting, because you have to acknowledge sometimes it's hard to experiment or give yourself permission to start something, even if it's 15 minutes at a time, to start something because it might be messy initially. You may not have all the answers to start, right? You may not know all the steps. In fact, you won't. And so you have to almost soothe that inner perfectionist. And your listeners are probably way healthier than I am, John. So maybe they don't deal with this, right? But I always say, hey, find those ways to start small. Right? That's the best way to wind up eventually dreaming big and accomplishing massive things, is to give yourself permission to start small. And it's even better if you give yourself permission to start messy. That's why I love 15 minutes. Like 15 minutes of a thing can't they can't get too messy. It can get a little messy, but it it allows you to say, all right, I don't have to have it all figured out. But for this next 15 minutes, I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna have this quick conversation. I'm gonna listen to this. I'm gonna read, you know, this half chapter of a book. And it's what's amazing, like we talked about 15 minutes a day, five days a week for a full year. That's 65 hours. Um, you'll be amazed at where you'll be at the end of that year if you give yourself that permission to start small, but do it repeatedly.

John Neral: 28:56

Nice. Thank you for that. That's a great, that's a great way for us to wrap up this January and uh and kick off 2026. So, Mitch, thank you so much for being a wonderful guest. If people want to find you, connect with you, learn more about you, your podcast. I'm gonna turn the mic over to you. Please share all the great things where people can connect.

Mitch Matthews: 29:16

Absolutely. Well, um, I I invite your people to come to MitchMatthews.com. That's probably the best place to start our conversation. They can certainly check out my DreamThink Do podcast. But I also we put a gift together for uh your crew, and we've got a new webinar. Um, it's called Finding Time for Your Next Chapter, and it's helping people to find that time, even those 15-minute chunks, uh, to be able to figure out and chart out what that next chapter might be. And it's a $97 workshop, but for your folks, they can go to mitchmathews.com backslash time. That'll get them access to the webinar. But if they use the coupon code GPS, so it's a tribute and a shout out to you. If they use that, they will get uh the the workshop, the webinar for free. So it's it goes from a $97 uh webinar that a lot of people really enjoyed uh to be able to dive into that. We get you tactics and and strategies you'll be able to use right away to be able to take the things we talked about and really run with them.

John Neral: 30:18

I will make sure all of that is in the show notes, but first and foremost, thank you so very much. That's a very generous gift for everybody. So thank you. Yeah. Mitch Matthews, happy new year. I hope 2026 is wonderful for you and everybody in your life. And uh, thanks for being an incredible guest on the Mid Career GPS podcast.

Mitch Matthews: 30:35

Thank thanks so much, John. I appreciate it. And I just love what you're doing, and it's an honor to be a part of it.

John Neral: 30:40

Right back at you. Thank you so much. Well, my friends, if there's one takeaway from this conversation with Mitch, here's what I want to offer you today. This year could be the opportunity for you to show up and give yourself permission to do something different. You know, it doesn't have to be anything magnanimous, it doesn't have to be anything ultra scary. But if you think about what Mitch talked about in terms of giving yourself 15 minutes a day, maybe it's you giving yourself permission to have a conversation with your spouse or your loved one about how happy you are in your job or your work bestie, a trusted colleague about what you want to do differently at work. Maybe it's about giving yourself permission to speak up in the room that you normally don't speak up in. Your mid-career GPS can guide you wherever it is you want it to go, but it can only do that when you have the clarity to know exactly what it is that you want. So until next time, my friends, remember this. You will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform. And if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit johnnarrell.com for more information about how I can help you build your Mid-Career GPS, or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at Johnnarrell Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember, how we show up matters.