Lyndsey Padget. Learner. Public speaker. Writer. Badass.
Lyndsey gave this incredible session at Devup this year called Badass 101.
I’d never heard Lyndsey before but this won’t be the last time I attend a session led by her, I can tell you that much. This was different. Different in a very good way! It was kinda like walking into a personal training session expecting someone who (for all you knew) just bought their certification off the internet but instead, being greeted by Chuck Norris.
Yeah, that awesome!
I think the attendees all knew in the first five minutes that we were in for a workout. A workout of emotion and insight rather than pushups and back-kicks. While I’m always up for the latter, this time I was hoping for the former. Lyndsey delivered.
Some quick highlights that she shared which spoke to me:
- A Badass is someone who is a respected leader but doesn’t take a lot of crap from anyone.
- A Badass is not a rude jerk.
- Your reputation is greater than your brand. We hear a lot about your personal brand these days. Focus on your reputation and your brand will follow.
- “Anger is like drinking poison and expecting your enemy to die”.
- Leaders absorb heat and radiate sunshine. <—- LOVED this!!!
Finally, the biggest part of this session for me was about staying balanced.
Look I’m turning 49 soon, as of this writing. The pace at which I feel I should try to keep up with technology is far faster than the pace/energy I sometimes feel that I actually possess. It would take up every available hour of my time away from work, leaving none for family, exercising or even writing on this here little blog.
Lyndsey reminded us to remember to do other things we enjoy, besides work. Don’t make life all about work. Do things that re-energize and re-center you. We NEED downtime. We need to do things that bring us joy.
For me, I need less screentime (says the guy writing a draft of this blog post on a Sunday night in front of the TV). SeewhatImean? I need to spend more time than I do sitting down to play board games with my kids, talking with my wife and doing something in my oft-neglected woodshop. It’s easy to get too busy with work or work-related stuff.
But Badasses are balanced. If Chuck Norris had only ever worked on punching through walls, he’d had never been famous for roundhouse kicks to the face. If Daniel had never trained with Mr. Miyagi on that flipping boat (see what I did there?) or on those posts down on the beach, he never could have face-kicked that dude from Cobra-Kai.
Balance.
Find what gives energy back to you .. and you’ll have more energy to share out to others in your life, to learn, and to grow.