A Call To Leadership

EP257: Burnout Is Real with Dr. Eric Recker

• Dr. Nate Salah

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Dr. Eric Recker joins us in this episode to share his inspiring journey from burnout to balance. Together, we’ll unpack the spectrum of burnout, the importance of self-awareness, and practical steps to regain control in overwhelming circumstances. This episode offers hope and actionable strategies for anyone feeling maxed out by life’s demands. So, if that’s you, press that play button now!



 Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • Subtle indicators of burnout and how addressing them early can make all the difference
  • How quiet reflection and a simple habit of journaling can lead to life-changing clarity
  • Why delegation is a powerful tool to build trust and free up your genius
  • Simple, actionable strategies to reignite your energy and restore balance in your life
  • How connecting with others can help you thrive in leadership and life



Resources Mentioned In This Episode



About Dr. Eric Recker
Dr. Eric has practiced dentistry since 2002, leading a thriving team and staying passionate about patient care even after two decades. A lifelong learner, Dr. Eric earned his pilot’s license in 2018 and has traveled to 12 countries and 46 states—mounting adventures as a recovering triathlete, including Ironman races and summiting Kilimanjaro. 


Drawing on these experiences, he champions the importance of living purposefully in the present moment, a mindset he calls #WINtheNOW. As a Certified Elite Success Coach, he now guides fellow high achievers toward realizing their goals without sacrificing balance and fulfillment along the way.



 Connect With Dr. Eric



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To learn more, visit our website at www.greatsummit.com.


For tax, bookkeeping, or accounting help, contact Dr. Nate’s team at www.theincometaxcenter.com or send an email to info@theincometaxcenter.com.


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[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Burnout has an effect on so many of us. We don't even like the term. However, it creeps up, and then we are in a place where we just can't handle it anymore. I've been there. I know if you've been alive long enough, you've probably been there too. I've invited a guest on the show. Eric Recker, Dr. Eric will enlighten us on his journey and his wisdom around practices To find a way to eliminate, not only eliminate it, but find a life of fulfillment, fulfillment, and not just accomplishment. He has a wonderful program. Win the Now, we'll make sure it's in the show notes and he coaches and he leads, and he is an amazing resource for helping us to find ourselves when we perhaps have gotten lost. Can't wait for you to listen in. I'm Dr. Nate Salah. This is A Call to Leadership. Dr. Eric, thanks for being on the show.

[00:01:04] Dr. Eric Recker
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here. 

[00:01:07] Dr. Nate Salah
Oh, man. Yeah. We have some kindred journeys, if you will, as well as with our, our listener in terms of this spectrum of leadership of life, when it comes to running a business and, you know, in, in our curricular and family and all these different levers that are pulling on our lives. You've experienced it in, in, at great lengths, and even just are talking about this idea of burnout, uh, the conversation around that, that's not, uh, it's not going away. And you've got an interesting perspective on, on burnout, even the term itself. What comes to mind when I say the word burnout to you? 

[00:01:45] Dr. Eric Recker
So Nate, have you ever been burned out on hearing the word burnout? And I think as I talk to groups, some people are like, I'm sick of that term. So, okay, because I don't think I'm burned out. So we hear people say that all the time. I said, okay, maybe there's, so I needed to do some more research on this. I said, maybe we're on a spectrum of burnout. We use that word spectrum when we talk about other disorders, certainly about autism, some things like that. Maybe there's a spectrum of burnout. Maybe it starts with being a little bit overwhelmed. So maybe one day we're a little overwhelmed and we don't do anything about it. The next day we're a little bit more overwhelmed. Then maybe we start to say we're more fatigued. Then maybe we start using the word like, boy, I'm, I'm spent, I'm a little torched. And then you, as it keeps progressing, you might be in, in full on burnout, which is where I found myself. And, uh, it's an ugly place to go. So I think if we ignore some of those earlier things, like overwhelm, we have constant overwhelm, that's a problem. If we don't address that, then we are going to get to that full on burnout stage.

[00:02:54] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. It's so critical. And it's, I think about the, even the, the trajectory of, of burnout. It's eventually it turns into something where we. We see no opportunity for, for any further progress. That's one way we can describe this, uh, spectrum as you, as you explain it. And it almost seems innocuous at first, but he can feel overwhelmed, right? I mean, we do things happen. I mean, at any point in the journey of a day, you can feel overwhelmed. I've felt overwhelmed. Someone listening has felt overwhelmed. Might've been yesterday. Might've been tomorrow. It might be tomorrow. It might even be today. That feeling of, okay. I have too much on my plate, perhaps there's, uh, too much of a commitment or perhaps things have popped up that I didn't expect in my day and now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed in your journey when you felt overwhelmed, did you have a, did you have a way of getting out of it or did it start to snowball and what were some of the factors?

[00:03:59] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah. So it's snowballed for me. Uh, so I'm, I'm a practicing dentist. I see patients three days a week at this point, but it wasn't always that way. And that was, that was part of the problem. I hit the ground running when I started practicing. So my, my father was gracious enough to buy another dental practice, merge our practices together so that we, I would have an instant clientele, instant amount of patients that I could work with. The unfortunate part about that is day one. When I showed up to the office to start seeing patients, I was booked six weeks out. So I didn't get to gently ramp on board. My dad had been supporting this practice by himself, both practices by himself for several months. He was ready for me to have it. And he says, here you go, it's yours. And so I didn't, and it's not his fault, but I didn't have much of an onboarding. And so the overwhelmed kept stacking for me and I kept adding things. I kept adding things. Well, if I read this book, it'll be better. If I'm part of this group, it'll be better. If I do this, if I do this, if I do this, and eventually, I found myself with way too much on my plate. And then the even more critical factor for me is that I wasn't taking care of myself. 

[00:05:17] Dr. Nate Salah
Just about everyone listening, anyone listening has been to the dentist and has experienced. The dentist, the day in the life of a dentist is interesting. I've analyzed this, especially because dentists and accountants share similar sort of patterns. Uh, there's a lot of practitioner work, a lot of production work. You're focused on your day of serving needs of folks, but not only that, you're in high demand as a dentist in terms of all the different people who need to see you in that day. And then you still got to run a business. You still got to make sure that bills are paid. People are paid. You got to make sure that the marketing is done properly. Your operations, your systems are working well on top of serving the needs of all of your clients effectively. And in such a way that you're putting a smile on everyone else's face every day. And perhaps you've got to wear the smile, even if the weight on your shoulders is almost unbearable.

[00:06:16] Dr. Eric Recker
Wow, Nate, amazing summary. I appreciate that. You summarized it so well. One of the hardest things is having to be on all the time. I hear people say, Oh, you only see patient, you only work three days a week. I love that one. You only work. Three days a week, so people don't understand this career pivot that I've had where I'm seeing patients, but then I'm also coaching people and speaking and leading workshops and doing that, that kind of stuff. They don't see that they see the, Oh, you only work three days a week. Yeah. And those three days a week that I work, I am on a hundred percent of the time. I just am. I don't get to go back to my cubicle and zone out for a little bit. I don't get to go check email. I don't get to do that. I'm busy throughout the day. And every person who comes into my practice has their own stuff that's going on in their lives. And one of the biggest guiding lights for our practices, we want everybody who comes into our practice to be seen, known, and heard. And to do that, we have to be extremely attentive. We can't take a commercial break while we have a patient in the chair. We have to be on, and that can be very exhausting. 

[00:07:33] Dr. Nate Salah
You're exactly right. Yeah. So you mentioned something that is important. You made a choice at some point to make a change, and that is so critical because it's unsustainable. Feeling overwhelmed that leads you to eventually a place where, man, I don't know if this is even worth it anymore. I cannot continue at this pace. I always tell people, Yeah. Tax season, for example, you know, I've owned an accounting advisory firm, it'll be 30 years here and just a very short period. I could not imagine tax season year round. However, that is the pace really of your practice, right? It was, I mean, it's, it's nonstop. If you're doing, if you're doing things right, let's say, right, and you've got a good reputation, people are like, oh my goodness, I'm going to go see Dr. Eric and his team because they do fantastic work. Well, it's not, I don't know. You can tell me, I don't think it's your business is really quite seasonal, uh, per se, right? People, if they got a cavity, they're not going to wait until winter to get it filled. 

[00:08:33] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah, we really don't have a time where we say, oh, oh, this is the off season. We just don't have that time. 

[00:08:40] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. It's not April 15th ever or 16th for you. Uh, and, and, and I think that's important to recognize is that I look at life as a series of seasons, whether they are in the month or in the week, and there's a seasonality to life that I think is so important of recognizing that there's a time and a place for work and there's a time and a place for rest, and especially in our, uh, you know, in our American culture. I'm not sure if you've heard of, of the, the Protestant work ethic, a guy named Max Weber back way back in, uh, about a hundred years ago, roughly describe this. American style of labor. And it's very intense. Our, if you go to other countries, of course, not always, but many countries look at the U S and say, man, you guys work just too entirely much. I mean, you don't have lives. You just work and then you get old and then you die. And I think we have to hit pause sometimes and recognize that it's okay to really start giving yourself permission, permission to live. Really give yourself permission. And, and, and that's, I think, a starting place. And to ask you, at what point did you give yourself, begin to give yourself permission?
 

[00:09:57] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah, and this is part of why I'm so passionate about it, because I went so far down the road. I went so far down. And so I think a lot of people can relate to getting to points where you're almost at the end of your rope. And then it settles down just enough, like you can smush it down just enough and then you keep going and then it shows up again and then you endure that and then you shove it down and, oh, it's, it's good enough for now. I did that for a really long time. 

[00:10:28] Dr. Nate Salah
Let me ask you this then based on that and rewind just a little bit. What were some of the patterns that you were facing? I mean, what, what was happening in your life? 

[00:10:38] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah, so I just felt maxed out all the time. I always felt maxed out and I was always tired, uh, because I was, I was doing so many things and I was doing a lot of stuff outside of the office as well. I was doing triathlon at the time. So I actually had a season where I was buying the practice for my father. I was, uh, building a new clinic. I was training for two Ironman triathlons. I was coaching both of my kids in soccer and I was on five boards. 

[00:11:08] Dr. Nate Salah
Holy moly. Stop right there, man. Oh, my goodness. Any one of those, any one of those is half a week's worth of work. Any one of those. And, and, uh, our listener for any duration would, would know a little bit about triathlon. I did try for a long time and, uh, Friend, he's talking about two Ironmans. I mean, think about that for just a minute. The training for that, the training that's involved in that. I mean, you've got to swim 2.4 miles. There's a lot of training involved in that. You've got to ride your bicycle 112 miles, and then you have to do a full marathon. 26.2 more miles, which any one of those is a tremendous feat in and of itself. And you're training for two while running a full-time practice and on five boards. 

[00:11:52] Dr. Eric Recker
Brother. And the thing is. Yeah, exactly. But the important thing to, I think for people to realize and I want people to say, Oh, I can't relate to him. I'd never do all that stuff. But a lot of us have too much on our plate. And the reason we do is we added something. Then we added something. Then we added something. I didn't go from zero boards to five. I didn't go from, you know, No, I didn't go from no triathlon to iron man. It's this slow burn and it's the frog in the kettle that when you turn the heat up, it doesn't realize how bad it is until it's too late. Yeah. It's too late. So I got to a point where I was going to sell my practice and walk away because I didn't see any other way out. I said, there's no way I can be happy in dentistry. There's no way. I just need to escape. And the problem was burnout was going to follow me no matter what I did. I had a plan in place to sell my practice to one of my associates, associate dentists that worked for me. And two months before it was going to happen, I was starting to get some momentum.

[00:12:56]
 I'm like, Oh, this is going to happen. Uh, two months before it happened, uh, he was in a horrible car accident on the way to work on a Monday morning, which Monday mornings were ground zero for me bad enough the way they are. And then he didn't show up for work and then we heard sirens and it was just, it was one of those moments that I had to step back first of all, I'd like, Oh crap, I'm going to be twice as busy as what I was. And that proved to be true. But when the dust settled on that a little bit, a couple months into it, I thought, you know, what do I really want the rest of my life to look like, you know, running away from this probably is not the right strategy because burnouts can follow me. All this stuff is going to follow me into whatever I do. I need to step back and what do I really want to do? So I realized that I want to help people. So I like being a dentist. I want to help people. So I started doing some writing. And I started, uh, just having really deep conversations with people here in their struggles, what they need it, how can I help?

[00:14:03] 
And then I was able to get a partner, uh, to buy half of my practice. That was about three years ago. We're still working together. He's awesome. He knew part of my plan was to step back to three days of clinical dentistry. And so on the other days, then I'm able to do other things that bring me joy. So I come in here and yeah, I'm switched on for the three days. Uh, and then the hope is that I'm able to leave most of the stuff here and then I'm able to do the other things that I love to do. And part of the reason I feel like each of us is on a journey and our journey can either be used only to benefit ourselves, or we can take the lessons that we've learned. And we can impact other people with the lessons that we've learned. And that's what I want to do. 

[00:14:49] Dr. Nate Salah
Love it. Was there a time during that process that you were unsure or second guessing yourself in that? 

[00:14:59] Dr. Eric Recker
You mean when, uh, before I sold it, when I was going to sell it or, or. 

[00:15:03] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. As, as, as you were thinking, I'm going to sell the practice. And then you made a shift and said, well, wait a minute. There may be another solution because burnout will follow me wherever I go. 

[00:15:13] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah, there was a shift and the only way that shift happened is I started journaling and I started spending some time in quiet, which I had never done before. Quiet was, quiet may have saved my life. Just spending time in quiet and reflecting and not giving in to always picking up my phone, not giving in to what I love to call the false sense of urgency. Which is this, the voice of should, and just really figuring out, okay, what do I want to do? Is there a way I can do this? That isn't all in the part that was burning me out so much is that I had to be, I felt like I had to be everything to everyone in my practice. Now that I have a partner, I don't feel that way anymore. We can figure things out together. So people are feeling hopeless in their jobs and feeling really despair. You know, take some time. What is it that you really want in life? And in your current job, are there some pivots that you can do to make it so it's not so overwhelming? Just a few things like that. 

[00:16:23] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, I love the journaling. I love the quiet aspect of it. And you're bringing that up. And that's we live in this world of efficiency. And we think if I did so much more, I would be so much more efficient. And we forget sometimes that sometimes if you do less, you can give more your best. And that efficiency then becomes, you know, I think sometimes we ask the wrong questions because we think efficiency means doing more, but we can actually become more efficient. If we listen to our bodies, listen to our minds, our spirits, our emotions, and nourish them, as you mentioned, I think that quiet time of reflection is a wonderful time to nourish. And I had a similar epiphany when I had, uh, we, we got our first puppy and I was walking that puppy every morning. I thought, Oh my goodness, this is so inefficient. I got so much to do. Now I've got to walk this dog around. And then. Sorry, all the dog lovers, but I, I became a dog lover. Let, let me finish the story here.

[00:17:26] 
As we began to, to bond over that time, I began to cherish that, that morning walk time because it was quiet. There were no distractions. I wasn't getting any emails or phone calls or text messages. And initially, Eric, I brought my phone with me and I would get some work done just because it's, it's right. It's, it's, it, like you said, it follows you, it follows you. And then. You know, Nate, why don't you just, just turn the phone off altogether, just enjoy and be in the moment and the quiet of this walk and absorb the nature around you. And we started taking a 45-minute walk every single day. And of course, my dog's not talking too much. Unless there's some kind of an animal or another another pet walking. So we're just we're just enjoying the time and it's so freeing and it's so life giving to spend that time and quietness and reflection. Of course, you took it to the next level of beginning to journal and really take your thoughts.

[00:18:26] 
And manifest them on paper, organize them, be able to really take a deeper dive into the journey of life you talk about, and beginning with, of course, you know, I love beginning with the end in mind, right? An old Stephen Covey saying to, Hey, what's the end game here? Where's this going? And because that's really a measure of vision. And if we don't know where we're going, anywhere will take us there. Of course, we know this. We know that vision is essential. Without vision, of course, people perish. This is nothing new. However, we don't take a hard look at it. We don't take a hard look and say, okay, my trajectory isn't taking me where I'm going to look back at my life and be satisfied and fulfilled in that. So what do I need to change in my own journey? And you took those steps. 

[00:19:16] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah. And what's, what's interesting. I love that you said less is more because we are such a society of more add a pill, add a show, add this, add that, add that, add that. Maybe the answer is more, but it's a focus less, just like you said. And what's interesting from a productivity standpoint. So, uh, I was seeing patients, uh, four days a week when I switched to three days a week. I only lost about, that was 25 percent fewer hours, but I produced 10 percent less. I really got very interested in efficiencies. How can I do things better? And I let my team in on, on where I was at. I was really honest with them about my burnout and what I was struggling with. And some of my team members stepped forward and said, how can we help? We have a little bandwidth. How can we help? And so I learned for the first time, really how to delegate some things. And man, it was really great. I was at a class recently and one of the talks that the person did was, do you want to do 10 work or do you want to do thousand dollar work because we spend too much of our time doing 10 work when we have the opportunity to do really, really good efficient work that is within our wheelhouse and within our strength. And that's really where we need to use our time and use our energy. 

[00:20:51] Dr. Nate Salah
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love the vulnerability and the transparency in your decision-making to involve the team and to because the old saying, you know, three, a three, a court of three strands is not easily broken. There's there's so much power in the collective intelligence and synthesis of a team who care. About not only one another, but care about the experience we're all tasked to deliver and you as a leader, uh, you're human, I'm human, you're listening, you're human and people know that it's not a bad thing. It's never a bad thing to say, Hey, here's a, here's a, here's a struggle. Here's a problem, of course, with inappropriate ranges of, of the practice and whatever you're doing and let's, uh, let's put our heads together. Let's find a solution and it's amazing what happens on when, when you not only delegate, but you, what you're sending a message is, hey, I trust you, I trust you to help me so that we can make this better. 

[00:21:52] Dr. Eric Recker
Yeah, I would argue that if you don't delegate, if you feel like everything has to be on your shoulders, it's a weird form of pride. You're kind of being a martyr is really what you're doing and you are telling your team that you don't trust them to do it. If you want to empower your team, give them some things to do that help you out and elevate them. Boy, that's awesome. When you can do that, then you have people who more, more likely, as we were talking about earlier, more likely to feel a part of something. Yeah. And that is what people are looking for right now. We want it. We need to show them that we trust them, you know, within normal boundaries, give them a little bit, see how it goes. Give them a little more, see how it goes. Check-in with them to see how they're doing. But often you find that you hired these people for a reason and that they're more capable than maybe you think they are.

[00:22:48] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, absolutely. And it's so good. And, and knowing where your genius is and where you best serve the people who you are aligned to, to walk alongside of and, and leadership and you recognizing that there are different types of, there's different strata Within the organization, letting that go so that you can work in your genius is essential really to effectiveness in your leadership as well as mine. And I'm preaching to the choir. I'm a doer, you're a doer, someone listening, we're all doers. Okay, great. So, it's so important to hear it, hear it, hear it. Manifest itself. If you're in a place, Eric, someone listening is in a place right now, and they say, Dr. Eric, Dr. Nate, you don't know what I'm going through. I don't even know where to start. I can barely breathe with how I'm feeling burned out. What do you, what do you say to that person? 

[00:23:41] Dr. Eric Recker
You know, I don't know every detail of your situation, but I do know that I found myself having panic attacks on the server room floor in my office. When I was a half hour behind, I had five hygienists waiting for me and our server had just crashed. I've been to a really low rock bottom, crying my eyes out on the floor, trying to figure out how I was going to get up and get back in the game because, oh, by the way, it was 9 30 in the morning and I don't even get lunch until one. So, if you're feeling that way, I just need you to raise your hand. I just need you to raise your hand and whether you raise your hand to your journal and start writing some of it out, you raise your hand to me and say, Hey, I just need to have a conversation. Raise your hand to someone and start the conversation because when you keep it to yourself, when it's all inside, it has so much power over you. And I will tell you, there was hope or there is hope. There is hope. It does not have to be this way. I haven't met someone yet that we can't go to work on life design and help them figure out how to have more hope than they currently have.

[00:24:54] Dr. Nate Salah
Indeed. Indeed. There's always hope. Nothing is impossible. Is a catastrophe. As long as we can breathe. As long as we're still alive, we can move forward. That is the beauty of your the pulse you have the heartbeat that you have. It means that there's still hope for tomorrow. It's a good thing. And knowing that perhaps today may be my darkest hour and that is going to be part of the amazing story. As I share in the future of how I have overcome this obstacle and I and what I'm hearing is we don't do it alone. We're not islands. We're not isolated. We need to have community. We need to have fellowship. We need to have mentorship and leadership and coaching and those who can can share A word of encouragement of affirmation of inspiration of direction of attitude of application to take the smallest step even the smallest step forward is a step forward is a step out of the darkness into the light.

[00:26:03] Dr. Eric Recker
It is. It is. And the light shines brightest in the deepest darkness. So just don't give up, don't give up, don't get stuck believing this is as good as it's going to get. So I stuck there for a long time. It's a scary place, but there is hope. There is a hope where there is hope that you can move forward. There is hope that you can have impact. There is hope that you can find peace. There is hope that you can find meaning. There is hope. Don't lose it. 

[00:26:34] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, I love that. So, you're in a, in a place now where, are you still having panic attacks? 

[00:26:42] Dr. Eric Recker
No more panic attacks. I actually felt the beginning of one starting to build within the last couple of weeks. And it was because I was overloaded. It was, I was slipping back down into some of that overwhelm overload. Um, but I saw it starting, and I have a couple built-in buffers during my day in my day now in my schedule, because I know I need that. And so it was, uh, it was buttoned up right against one of those buffers. And, uh, I came down to my office and just sat and did some deep breathing for a little bit. Thought about some things I was grateful for and it was gone.

[00:27:22] Dr. Nate Salah
So you, you, you were able to recognize that now and, and dissipate it. It's so critical to have those, those buffers, those mechanisms in place in our day, not just our week or a month or a year, but in our day, whatever it looks like for you. For example, you talked about Mondays. Mondays used to be the same for me and many, many people, uh, someone listening. I'm sure Mondays are the dreaded day after the weekend and all of the emails and. And, and, and work that needs to get done. So Wednesday, Monday was my dreaded day. And, and one thing you mentioned is, and this is a recurring theme we're talking about as, as we move to a close, is that we have control over few things in life. Not everything, but few things in life. One of the things we have control over are the choices we make. And one of the choices we can make is we can choose to modify and give margin and change our schedule. We can do that. This is a great thing. So I made Monday, no appointments on Monday. I made Monday the day to have some cool conversations. And I record almost all of these wonderful interactions we get on the podcast on Monday. People are like, Oh my goodness, Nate, why do you schedule your podcast interviews on Monday? It's because for me, These conversations are part of my buffer. These conversations are a way that I am rejuvenated and recharged because I get to interact with wonderful people, just like you, Eric, who are encouraging and inspiring, and they, they give light, you give life.

[00:28:53]
 And so I want to start my week with that. I want to start my week and end my week. My bookends of my week are these life-giving interactions because now what happens with Monday? Man, I am looking forward to Monday. Monday is like, oh, I can't wait for Monday to get here. Cause I'm going to get to meet Eric. We're going to have some cool combos and, and I can't wait for, for the, for everything to happen. Now I'm ready. I'm mentally, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, I'm ready for the week. I'm prepared. And then having those pieces in place through the week, find those holes in your week, friend, find those places in your week where you're, where you feel most, most, uh, uh, out of, out of tune with. The possibility for excellence in your in your week and then give yourself margin in that time build a space where you can have the bravery to embrace what you need to bring yourself into a place of harmony of peace that to me is like if there's one thing that we can do. Like right now, after you, after someone listens is, is look at your calendar, look at your schedule and, and it might hurt a little bit, right, Eric? Cause it, it hurts a little to let go, but it feels even better after we have. 

[00:30:20] Dr. Eric Recker
Yes, yeah, we have to have courage to believe that it could be another way and also have courage to say okay I'm gonna give myself a couple minutes here a couple minutes there It doesn't have to be a lot get up and walk around the block Stand by the window and do some power poses stand with your feet spread wide hands on your hip looking out the window for two minutes Do things like that, very deep, intentional breathing, write down three things you're grateful for, uh, reflect on the last great thing that happened in your life or schedule something so you can anticipate the next thing, all of these things we can do, they're not difficult, but we just don't do them because we're, we're always maxing out and I can check more email and I can be more productive and I can do my phone routine and I can do all of these things.

[00:31:17] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, absolutely. I have one of my team members says, Nate, do one thing every day that makes you happy. And I love that. I love that. Then that's because there's an intentionality behind it and there's a focus and there's there's a drive and there's excitement around it. What's one thing? So, for example, Uh, even if I don't have one thing that is propped up that day, I know one thing that makes me happy is to send a, a message to my spouse or, or, or my son that's encouraging. And so even if I don't have anything in the, in the pipeline, if you will, like, you know what, it's going to make me pretty happy to just send a message. And so sometimes my wife, I'll. I'll pick out a corny song from the eighties, a ballad or something. And I'll play, I'll type in, you know, or it could be a Beatles song.

[00:31:58]
 I'll type in a few of the lyrics because, you know, it's so cheesy and loving and she'll name that song and she'll get a laugh out of it. And so will I, whatever it is, build it into your day. And Eric is, is, is, is living proof. Of the progression, the journey, if you will, and I also love that, you know, it's, it's possible that some of those things prop up again, you know, it's, we've never arrived without some, some recognition that, you know what, I'm still human, there's possibilities, but here's what I'm building into my life to help me through this to help me through this. Eric, I got one question before we hop off. And sometimes, I get to ask this of our guests, and I'd love to ask it of you. One day, we will be at the end that we began with many, many years ago, hopefully, as you live your life. When you look back and you see all that you've done, all the people you've gotten an opportunity to encourage and bless, what is one thing you would like others to have said about you? 

[00:33:03] Dr. Eric Recker
I would like others to say, He was a good ally. I'd like others to say he was a good ally. And that means I was in their corner. I was on their side. I was willing to help. That's what I want to be in this life. 

[00:33:18] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, my friend, you are on your way. Thanks for being here. Thanks for encouraging and teaching our, our listeners. Thanks so much for having me, Nate. This has been fantastic. Well, my friend, we did it. I'm so honored you were able to join me on this episode of A Call to Leadership. Now, this might not be for everyone because you really have to be in a certain place in order to take the kind of steps to level up your leadership. And I want you to be taking steps. And for those of you who feel like you're ready for something like this, there's a place you can go. You can go to our website, greatsummit.com. I'll make sure that's in the show notes, but here's the cool thing that we have. We've got a masterclass. We have all different kinds of events. We even have our leadership club where you can meet other people just like you to go deeper in your leadership journey. You and I all get to spend some time together and really focus on aiming for greatness. I can't wait to see you there. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, and this is A Call to Leadership.

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