The Positive Habits Podcast
The Whiteboard Moment: Real Success Starts At Home
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Episode notes
Kat is joined by Luke, a former workaholic whose perspective shifted after a realisation about his relationship with his children. Luke talks about how this change in perspective redefined how he viewed success and why creating a balance in all areas of life is important. He also shares with Kat why making genuine connections matters, how to be more present and how he creates a family first culture in his team.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Luke's wake up call came when his young son wrote 'Daddy, I got my swimming certificate today. Are you proud of me?' on a whiteboard because he knew he wouldn't see his father that day.
- Success doesn't have to mean sacrificing family time for your career. Luke went from earning a high salary with no time for family to making 40% less but being present for all his children's important moments.
- Constant goal setting and a "next big thing" mentality can create perpetual dissatisfaction; when you achieve one goal, you immediately look for something bigger rather than appreciating what you've accomplished.
- Luke deliberately creates a "family first" culture in his workplace, telling employees not to take holiday days for their children's events but to simply attend them.
- Men particularly struggle with communication and mental health, creating environments where phones are banned naturally encourages meaningful conversation and connection.
- Staying present rather than obsessing over future achievements reduces pressure, enables smarter choices and creates consistency while making the process more enjoyable too!
- Extreme challenges (like ultramarathons) driven by ego can lead to misery and disappointment; Luke found greater fulfilment in simple experiences like walking with his son or dinner with his daughter.
BEST MOMENTS
"When I came home, my son had written on the whiteboard 'Daddy, I got my swimming certificate today. Are you proud of me?' The reason he'd done that is because he knows he's not gonna see me. I was sat in my front room bawling my eyes out. This is not who I wanna be."
"For me, goals now are 'I'm gonna go for a walk with my son' or 'Me and my daughter are gonna go out for dinner together.' These are more important goals, really short term things, but I don't write them down. I just make sure they happen."
"I think if you blame other people for mistakes or you've got excuses for you not being where you want to be, then it's quite a loser mentality. I've always tried to blame myself for things."
"If you take a break from worrying about what you don't have and then focus on what you do have, I think it just makes you a lot happier by focusing on the present."
"A lot of people, success for them is having a lovely car, a massive house, lots of money. Whilst all them things are great, that's not what success looks like to me. Mine is being able to take my son to a swimming lesson."
ABOUT THE GUEST
Luke is the Director and Founder of Marble Recruitment and Co-Founder of Balance Wellness Club. One of his biggest regrets in life is that he prioritised work over spending time with my family and this is something he has been trying to remedy over the last 2 years since setting up Marble Talent Group.
ABOUT THE HOST
Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed. The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship and career. She suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit, and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.
She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.