The Curious Leader: Embracing Growth at Every Age with Dr Ganga Sudhan

In this insightful episode, we sit down with Dr. Ganga Sudhan, also known as the Competency Whisperer, to explore how cultivating curiosity can fuel lifelong leadership success. With over 25 years of experience in training and organizational development, Dr. Ganga shares how experienced professionals can stay relevant and impactful by adopting a growth mindset.

We discuss the risks of falling into a fixed mindset, the role of AI tools like ChatGPT in empowering senior professionals, and practical strategies to foster curiosity and adaptability in leadership. Tune in for actionable insights on staying dynamic and inspiring in today’s evolving workplace.

Key Takeaways:
🔹 Why curiosity is the key to staying relevant in leadership
🔹 How AI can bridge the gap for experienced professionals
🔹 Practical ways to cultivate a growth mindset
🔹 Signs of leadership stagnation—and how to avoid it

Listen now and transform your leadership approach!

👉 Connect with Dr. Ganga:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gangasudhan
Facebook: facebook.com/LifeCoachGanga

Thanks for listening. Feel free to follow the Leadership Longevity conversation on LinkedIn as well.
Just click here

Transcript

Dianne Flemington: 0:20

Dianne, hello, listeners and my special tribe, welcome to the leadership longevity podcast. I'm your host. Dianne Flemington, well, welcome back to another recording of the leadership longevity Podcast. Today, I want to introduce to you someone I met reading a magazine in my industry. I'm also in the learning and development area, and I came across an article that featured Dr Ganga, and the two words that struck me, that had me reach out to him, was modern elder. And if you've been following me on this podcast, you really get a sense of who I am in terms of wanting to help leaders at all levels build long, healthy, successful careers. And that doesn't mean that we have to start at a young age. You could be like me starting at in my 50s, and we're looking for opportunities for organizations to start seeing us. And part of that podcast launch, for me, was a big part of how can we take more advantages of the wisdom that exists in our organizations today? Hence why Dr Ganga got an invitation to the podcast. So just a brief introduction. He's known by his colleagues, actually as the competency whisper. So Dr Ganga Sudan is an accomplished training professional with a remarkable track record in elevating team performance and enhancing organizational success. He's currently the workplace training consultant at responsive trade education in Hamilton, New Zealand, and he's led an impactful program across multiple industries with unique ability to connect deeply with frontline teams while aligning the management goals. His approach emphasizes curiosity and continuous growth, guiding experienced leaders to adopt a mindset that balances humility and adaptability, and in today's podcast, you'll really get a sense of his mindset in order to encourage the mindset of the leaders that he works with. So without any ado, I'd like to introduce you to Dr Ganga. Okay, tribe. He's here. Dr gang is with us. And as I mentioned, what drew me to him in his article was these two words, modern Elga. So first off, Dr Ganga, please welcome to the leadership longevity The tribe has been looking forward to hearing from you, and start with where you may. But I want to just invite you to start, consider explaining to us modern elder. Can you speak into that a little bit more please.

Unknown: 3:02

I think. Thanks, Dianne, first of all, thank you for having me. First of all, when it comes to the verbiage of modern elder, it comes from this notion of an elder being, someone wise, someone knowledgeable, someone that you revere in a sense where in today's context, that kind of relationship is is quite is not the usual experience of individuals, both in personal and professional lives. So the modern elder is taking that reverence of the elder, and combining that with the fact that it is no longer a reverence per se, but more of a relevance. So whether the elder is is imparting their wisdom, is sharing their wisdom, connecting with the people that they are sharing their wisdom with. So it is this modern elder terminology or concept, is to recognize that it requires more than just being wise. It requires relationship. It requires, as we will speak about later, no doubt about curiosity.

Dianne Flemington: 4:14

Yes, that's the key word there. That's the hook word, I think, for sure, and you also just to kind of open a window into the future here of our conversation, you remind me of the importance of the mindset as well the growth mindset. What's the what's in the way right now, let's start on the front end here of what's what are you addressing when we're looking at opening up the conversation around modern elder, yep.

Unknown: 4:42

So the the wisdom of people who have had very varied lived experience is no doubt, it's always been the case. As you go through life, as you have experiences, as you learn from your own mistakes and successes, you become wise. You. Become knowledgeable. So that has never been in question, and that continues to be true in today's content. What has changed is how that wisdom is transferred over to the next generation, to the to the people who are following behind. And so that's where the emphasis is, on the person who's wise to enable that wisdom to be shared. So that's that's where kind of a disconnect has occurred, especially in the last 10 to 20 years. And that largely comes across, as you kind of mentioned that about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. So the fixed mindset is a mindset in which we can only reach a capacity, and there's nothing more we can do. Or we are we are born with certain skills, and once those skills have formed, there's no way of molding them further. Whereas the growth mindset is always recognizing the fact that we can always grow, we can always learn, we can always adapt, we can always shift and maneuver through our continued experiences. So in the previous way of looking at it, it's a fixed mindset. A person who is wise has achieved everything they've achieved, they've learned, everything they've learned, they've come to a conclusion, and now they are there to be tapped as a resource. However, in today's context, wisdom doesn't quite wake that becomes an abrasive way to engage with other others who are falling behind. So it requires the person who's wise to also be curious, as we spoke about, where it is, about trying to understand what matters to the person comes who's coming after, so that that wisdom can be shaped in a way that will be receptive to the person coming behind. So that is a large part of that modern elder sort of conceptual framework that enables people to do that.

Dianne Flemington: 6:54

Do you see this growing in organizations today? Or are you seeing obstacles to this inclusion of modern elder. I

Unknown: 7:03

think, fortunately, we are in a space where it is not a significant minority. It's not modern. The idea of being a modern elder is no longer a very innovative or new or a very small subset of thinking. It's kind of grown in understanding it's kind of grown. And I think a lot of it is actually occurring at an informal level. A lot of people who are going through they are seeing that the evolution of business itself is so dynamic these days, more so than previously, where how you started a business 1020, years later is entirely different, and you are always evolving, and that that has been part of that process. So people who have become wise in the work that they do have had to evolve as they became wise. So it is not very uncomfortable, so to speak, when they are trying to engage someone else and share their wisdom, because they know that this wisdom didn't come out of doing the same thing over the 20 years, it actually came about changing and shifting themselves as they went along. So that's becoming quite a natural phenomenon. But I think many people don't recognize that they've actually become modern elders, they actually have that curiosity that was missing in previous generations. The whys of the previous generations did not have as much curiosity as the whys of today. And I think informally, I think the it is being practiced, but not really being reckoned. So we are in that, I would say it's kind of a sweet spot, because if you're already practicing it. Pointing it out becomes really a pleasant experience. Whereas if you're not experiencing it, and someone points out something, it feels as though you're lacking in something. Oh, I need to be curious. Whereas in most instances, it's about you're actually being curious. You actually need to lean more into it. And when we present it in that way, the person who's already curious and wise then is able to apply that wisdom more effectively in what they want to achieve.

Dianne Flemington: 9:11

That makes sense, and I want to pull something forward you mentioned earlier about the stance of curiosity. Okay, so what inspired you to champion curiosity as a especially as a core value for your experienced leaders.

Unknown: 9:26

Yeah, so curiosity is something that that enables learning. In my opinion, I always say. I always tell the people that I work with or help, or those who I help learn that confusion leads to clarity. That's the statement I always present to my learners, because a lot of my learners are adults, working adults, and sometimes it feels uncommon. Able to ask questions because you are, you are you are thinking of yourself as someone who's established or experienced to a certain degree. So then there are certain types of questions that you don't want to ask because you feel that it it kind of undermines your expertise. And so people don't ask certain questions. And so I always like to present to them the fact that, instead of saying there's no silly questions, I would like to say that confusion leads to clarity. And so when you are confused about something and you ask the questions, you will eventually reach clarity, because the questions will enable you to apply the knowledge that's being given. It kind of melds together. And so when you present it that way, then it is easy to accept the notion that there is no silly question. There is no question that you can't ask, because if you're confused, asking the question that you need to ask will lead you to clarity. So there's no question that's off limits. So I tend to approach it from that angle. And in order for you to ask the right questions and go through that confusion, you need to be curious. You need to be curious about the learning. Need to be curious about what you don't know and what you want to know. And so that's going to enable you to learn. And the big part of learning is applying. So you can learn lots of things, but if you don't apply them, then the learning is of very little value. It's just, you know, it's not presenting you with future possibilities.

Dianne Flemington: 11:31

Like language is a big one that comes to mind when you say that I could learn French all day long, but if I don't go through the world and practice it, forget about it. I'll never stick a simple one. Well, now I want to draw because we talked earlier about the growth and fixed mindset, and then into curiosity. And I noticed that I get that they're applying it. But how do you get someone to recognize that, to get to the growth mindset? I mean, if you got someone in a fixed mindset, they know they're needing to do some learning. What's the what's the switch flip for you? Yep.

Unknown: 12:08

So, so, as we mentioned, there are some people who are naturally, informally, having that growth mindset. They're not realizing it, and we are pointing that out to them. Then we have the other subset, which is people who have, who have sort of done it the old school way, they have thought about it in the old school way. So they see themselves as wise, and unfortunately, they see themselves as being having reached the conclusion and for everyone else to tap on their knowledge. And because they are not applying their curiosity, they come across as abrasive to the to the younger generation who want to learn in a more authentic way, in a more natural way. I The the younger generation don't want to come to someone and say, hey, look, elder, please tell me how to do this. They don't want that experience because that makes them feel less and that's in today's context, there's lots of things that's happening in the economy that makes them feel less so this is something they don't want to experience. And so if we are not coming and ask, unfortunately, a subset of professionals who are experienced and who have wisdom are expecting that from the younger generation, and because the younger generation are not going to come up and meet them in that way. They feel that they've they feel displaced because nobody's actually asking them for their wisdom, and they don't realize that all they need to do is ask the question, why are they not asking? Why are they not coming to me and so? So what happens is, in a typical environment, a person who's in a fixed mindset, who is wise, who's experienced, and they have younger colleagues, they own that engagement of that that that engagement of the wisdom only comes about when something goes wrong. So the younger person has missed out on something because they have not experienced it yet, and the person who's more experienced has actually seen that happen before, but because they were not curious to come in and ask and help the younger colleague see that coming, and they are expecting the colleague to come and ask them, hey, look, I'm experience. I'm engaging with this client. I'm engaging with this situation. Have you seen it before? And because they don't ask the question, they don't offer their their experience or their wisdom. And it only comes about once things have gone sideways, and then the person with the experience comes in and say, Hey, you should have asked me. I have gone through this before. And the younger person, as we've mentioned earlier, already having lots of things that's happening in their lives, professional and personal, which makes them feel less, doing that makes them feel even less, and pushes them away. And so they are not going to it doesn't it doesn't help anyone. So puts, puts, puts puts a more animosity relationship between the two to colleagues, rather it is. And so that's part of the work that I do. Where I try to encourage people who are wise, who have experience, but who are tending to be more fixed in their mindset, to help them touch curiosity, incorporate curiosity into into the way they are engaging their colleagues. And that can start with very, very simple sort of actions, just asking questions, right? Is something that anyone can do. It's not something new, it's not something novel, it's not something so dramatic. It can just start with asking your colleague, Hey, are you okay? Are you doing you're doing this project. Are you okay? Can we a simple question like that, and that in itself, is going to generate a whole bunch of discussion and conversation that leads to problems being solved. Wow,

Dianne Flemington: 15:44

so you're speaking into really, like creating culture around curiosity in the organization. Yeah, that's that would be very impactful. We had a brief discussion about how AI tools are powerful equalizers for modern elders. Can you, can you share with the tribe some of that conversation? Yeah, please. So,

Unknown: 16:06

so one, one aspect that is not difficult to understand is that technology is something that has happened over the last 20 to 30 years, and we do have experienced professional who whose experience goes 30 to 40 years, right? We've got that 25 to 40 years kind of experience. So people with that level of experience actually have sort of missed that trajectory of getting into technology. So we actually have a whole bunch of people who are really wise, but they are really not into technology, or they're very superficially involved in technology, and generally have a sense of fear around technology. They don't have a comfort, a level of natural comfort that you know. People you know who are under 40 or under 45 would have so and so because they don't have that technology familiarity, things like reducing their knowledge into a written manual, for example, it's something that's beyond them. It's very difficult for them. They have all this knowledge and experience, and that can be reduced into a manual, but the process of doing into a manual will require a third person to come into the picture and help them do that they themselves are not able to with AI tools like, for example, my personal favorite is chat GPT. And so using something as simple as chat GPT, they could easily put down all the ideas in point form, and then chat, GPT is going to generate the entire manual for them. So that's something that can simply be done. You know, a simple document can be done and and because we have the technology tools to do, for example, speech to text, it doesn't even require them to have any technical, technical ability to handle a computer, as long as they can just share the ideas and it will be as though they are talking to someone, right? Just just it comes with all devices. Now, text, speech to text is on all devices, and I've had quite a number of cases where I've achieved success through that particular model, where all they're doing is just reducing their ideas to point form, just just as though they are just speaking to someone, they just put it into the dialog box, hit, enter, give chat, GPT, a little bit of instruction as to what the outcome needs to be. And there you go. Within within a minute or two, you've got a full manual ready to go. What

Dianne Flemington: 18:41

kind of manuals are we talking here?

Unknown: 18:44

It could be, let's say, let's go back to the example we spoke about earlier, where this younger colleague is experiencing new new clients, new situations in their job context, whereas this person who is wise has already had a number of experiences, and the manager could tell this experienced professional say, hey, look, why don't you think about the three worst situations you ever faced with a client, three best situations where it really went smoothly with the client, and just put down the key factors that you think was success, that made it a success, or made it made it a failure, and then, and then they just recount that in just, you know, in a verbal way, into chat GPT, and then give chat GPT the instruction that these are the three examples that I have of very positive and very negative experiences. Can you reduce that into a into a case study, so that other colleagues can understand from that. And you would be amazed at the document it presents and chat GPT will actually go to the because, because of the way it operates, what it will do is not only. To turn all those points into a summary or a or a description of an event of the case. It will also follow through with analysis of the cases and then that that document alone, probably done within a half an hour, one hour, including the person putting in their content, is already a really, really powerful resource for other colleagues in the organization to be able to learn from those experiences.

Dianne Flemington: 20:28

Oh, sir, are these what you be using? Because I'm curious how it's trained your role as a trainer, right? And are these the assets that you'd be using in order to train other individuals across the organization, is that what you're speaking into, yeah,

Unknown: 20:45

we I mean, that's just one example of how you could that. Another example that it comes to mind is, let's say you've got five or six experienced professionals in the organization, and they've done different things, and they've worked with different types of clients. We could just ask them to, hey, can you just reduce to an email, just your best, your best scenarios where you needed to think out of the box or you had to do something extra to get it over the line? And so they each, each of the five actually share their individual experiences. And as a manager, you may want to take all five, put it in the chat GP and say, hey, look, these are five different cases by five different staff who experience difficult clients. And they had to, and they had to maneuver through that process to get get it over the line. Can you identify certain key elements that are required so that when we hire other professionals, we can look out for these key attributes, so that we can we can achieve success in the typical clients that we face.

Dianne Flemington: 21:49

That's brilliant. Okay, get it. Okay, that makes sense to me. I'm in that over 50 range when it comes to tech, and I do appreciate learning new things, but there are some interesting ways that people are coming up with that are very useful and efficient and time saving. And the conversation, this conversation reminds me of the multi generational conversations that we're having in workplace right now, and that falls under, I see a lot of organizations put it under more of a diversity, inclusion arena. And where would you put it? Because we're talking about performance here, like we're talking about things that help enable performance and ROI in a business. So where would you in the org structure of things, put the importance of this modern elder and the tools that they can use to enhance their role and enhance their wisdom across the organization?

Unknown: 22:42

So one is at the front line level, where you have modern elders, meaning to save experienced professionals working alongside younger colleagues. So if you have that kind of diversity, then the examples that I am sort of sharing with you here are going to be really easy to sort of bring them all together, because what you don't want is a situation where there are too many people with fixed mindset. So you have experienced professionals who will do it their way. And then the younger professionals, younger colleagues, they are looking at discovering their own path. And then what then happens is that you have an organization that has two ways of doing things. So depending on colleague a, who has 20 years of experience, or colleague B, who has five years of experience, the way they will approach is entirely different. And so then as a, as a manager or a business owner, you are looking at this client, should I go with a, or should I go with B? And you're continuously doing that, and in my opinion, I don't think that's beneficial, because then that means there's a subset of of clients that you can't give to colleague B, and there's a subset of clients they can't give to colleague A, and then you you're actually fragmenting your organization. And then what happens if a client is somewhere in the middle, a client that will like either of them, but not fully, and you actually want both of them to work together, and you can't ever get that, and so then you're you're actually losing out on client base, because you're going to make a choice. This client could work here, and could work with either side, and you're going to choose one, and then it's probably not going to be as effective as if you had brought them together. So those kinds of experiences where the colleagues are able to kind of share ideas through different methodologies, different platforms, different means, is beneficial in doing that assimilation across the different types of professionals that are in our organization. The other aspect that I tend to think has greater value is in the decision making elements. So if we bring the modern elder as a sort of. An in house mentor. If we create a situation where someone with lots of experience in building businesses or has had high managerial sort of experiences, we bring them into a young organization run by a young person alongside a team of younger people, the benefits that that business get is actually remarkable, and that's where I've actually seen the modern elder concept applied really, really effectively.

Dianne Flemington: 25:33

Okay, is this where your competency whisper nickname comes into play?

Unknown: 25:40

Yeah. So the reason why I use competency Whisperer is because competency is a key factor that changes success, changes failure to success. Yeah, and that's easy to understand now the Whisperer. The reason why I use Whisperer is because, as I mentioned earlier, the younger generation, they are not wanting to be told. They are wanting to develop. They're wanting to develop the ideas they do not want to know what, what are the answers they want to know? What helps them to get, get the answers that work for them. And so whispering in that sense, is giving those ideas gently guiding them, presenting them with the information that helps them get the answers that works best for them, rather than going in. And I would contrast that with a consultant. Consultant goes in and tells them, hey, look, you have this problem. You need to do ABC to solve it. Whereas a whisper in that sense, in a poetic sense, I should say, is more of telling them, hey, look, these are the things that you need to look at. And when they think of those things, they actually get to A, B and C, and they feels as though that there's a high level of ownership, because they arrive at those solutions, those steps, those tasks, on their own thinking process

Dianne Flemington: 27:03

that reminds me of Ganga in in coaching, and I'm actually going just about finishing my Masters of coaching. There's this essence, there's this work that we do that seems to glide under the radar when people make accomplishments, right? I've seen it over and over, where the coach rarely gets the, you know, the Oh my gosh. Thanks so much to my coach. I feel like, if we do our job really well, you're using that word in a beautiful way. We're like the Whisperer. We're not the one out in front, you know, hailing them in and calling them forward. We're in the back of their minds, almost them feeling like, which where do i Where's my identity, where's theirs, to a degree, so that's really, that's a really great way that you put that forward. What's one piece of advice you give to leaders who want to remain relevant and impactful in this rapidly changing workplace that we're in nowadays?

Unknown: 28:01

I think the key, the key create technique or step, is to ask questions. I think, as I think anyone can relate to curiosity means, means necessarily asking questions. If you're curious, you're going to ask questions. You can't be curious and not ask questions, right? So asking questions is the key to to moving towards being someone who can be be applying benefit, applying, contributing to the success, without necessarily going into a telling or sort of a preaching, sort of an approach. So that's the advice I would give. And asking questions doesn't need to be a as I mentioned earlier. It doesn't need to be dramatic. It doesn't need to be a convoluted question. It could just be a simple why? Why do you think this? Why do you think? Or what do you think it could be just as simple of, how do you feel? It's just that tendency to ask questions. If you can get into a tendency of asking questions, then in my experience, I'm finding that people are opening up, coming in, and a lot more is discovered just by asking those questions. And I would say, ask questions even if, the if, the if the wise person or the experienced person knows what the answer is going to be. And I think just asking the question and being authentic in asking the questions, not asking a question in a condescending way, that will, that will totally derail, and that's unfortunately, that's what happens with some individuals who have a fixed mindset. They're asking questions in a way, or I told you so, and that's not going to work. It needs to be authentic. It needs to be genuinely asking question to find out more. And if a person can start to develop that. They don't even have to have it developed. They just need to want to develop that the way they ask questions will start to improve dramatically, very quickly, and they will find that, and it's it just feeds into it, because when you ask an authentic question, a person feels heard, feels listened to, and they are willing to share more, and when they share more, you have more information to work with and add value. And then when you add value, the other person appreciates, and then they are going to share. So it's just, it's just, it'll just be going into this spiral of positivity and

Dianne Flemington: 30:33

momentum too. Okay, so we got some leaders in this tribe. Dare I say that they're sitting there going, Oh God, I might have a fixed mindset. What would you recommend as their first step at this point? What do they need to do to nurture that curiosity so they're not asking condescending questions? What would you suggest?

Unknown: 30:57

I think asking questions to themselves. I think that would be, because if you are a fixed mindset, that means you have decided, perhaps through no fault of your own, that you have reached a conclusion. And so then the question will be, why do you think you've finished? Why do you why do you think you finished? Why do I think I finished this race? What makes me say that I finished this race? What more can I do? Is there a different race I could run is just asking yourself the question, asking yourself why you are having a fixed mindset. And I think that, in itself, is just going to open up doors. Yeah, I think

Dianne Flemington: 31:31

that's a brilliant place to start. I'm an advocate for you. Got to lead yourself first, right before you can start stepping into leading others. So, and I get that sometimes we find ourselves in different and the opposite. In this fast paced world, I get a lot of feedback from leaders that, look, I love the coaching stance, I love the mentoring stance, but we kind of get things done, and sometimes I just don't have time. Do you have any I don't know. I'm kind of putting on the spot here. But do you have anything that you could suggest to help a leader slow down on time so they can spend that more time being curious. With those individuals,

Unknown: 32:05

any suggestions, I think, like I said, asking a question, even though, because, in my opinion, you're using the same amount of time. So if you're, if you're going to talk about a problem, you could ask about a problem, right? So you could just paraphrase whatever you're going to say into a question, and with the view of finding out more. And I think Surprisingly, even though you feel that you're hard pressed for time, you need to quickly get to a solution. More often than not asking a question actually leads to the solution much faster than actually talking about it.

Dianne Flemington: 32:52

That interesting, totally makes sense, and I find that so true, actually, in my experience. So I like that. I'm going to leave that there. That's like a boom,

Unknown: 33:05

boom mic drop. Yes.

Dianne Flemington: 33:10

All right, this has been super special. I could spend hours asking you a million questions. I think that we'll probably have you back again, because there's a couple of areas that I'd like to go deeper, but I just want to honor time for the tribe. Is there any last minute shares that you want the tribe to know about you or what you're up to or this conversation? What do you want them to focus on or be a change agent for?

Unknown: 33:38

I think, I think I would like all of us to recognize that we still have a lot of knowledge across people who have done the work, who have had the experience, the knowledge is not there's no question about it. All of us have that knowledge, as long as we've put in the hard work, we gain the knowledge. Now, the gap that I see is that we are trying to teach the knowledge, and if we can remind ourselves as often as we can that we are not trying to teach the knowledge, especially to those who are coming behind us. They do not want to be taught. They do want to learn, but they do not want to be taught. So we do need to try to share our knowledge rather than teach our knowledge. And if we can remind ourselves that what we are trying to do is share our knowledge, I think it will make it easier for us, because when you try to teach someone and they're not learning, can be the most frustrating thing in the world. So but if we are just sharing, then we can just leave it there. We just share it. It does not matter whether the person has learned or not, whereas when we teach we expect them to learn, and if they don't learn, we feel like a failure. We feel like they fail. So I would encourage everyone to think of them. Knowledge. Think about how they can share their knowledge, rather than teach their knowledge. And I think if more of us can start to lean more on to that way of looking at it, I think it makes it easier for ourselves as well as for others who are receiving that knowledge,

Dianne Flemington: 35:15

a very contemplative place for these leaders to leave here thank you once again and try. We will give you links where you can connect with Dr Ganga on both LinkedIn and his Facebook page. And he's really just quite happy to connect with like minded people. So if you got something to share or support or partner with him on, I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from you. Yes, Dr Ganga, thank you so much for your time today, you and I will be in touch for sure, and you've been amazing.

Unknown: 35:47

It's been brilliant. It's been a it's been a wonderful experience. And I thank you for the opportunity to share my little bit of thinking with everyone.

Dianne Flemington: 35:55

Thank you so much. We'll see you soon. Ciao, for now, wait a second here. I can't let him go so fast. We need to know a few things about you before you go. Dr, Ganga, are you ready for these fire seat questions?

Unknown: 36:11

Oh, yes.

Dianne Flemington: 36:15

So we're all curious. So what age are you wanting to live your life to?

Unknown: 36:20

Well, I have a slight take on that. I would say that, rather than the age that I want to reach, I subscribe to the notion that however long or short it may be, I want to continue to be contributing productively. I want to be active. I don't want to be a situation where I live towards, live to 100 but the last 20 years is just being a burden on someone. So whatever age it might be, I want my My hope is to keep being productive, keep being someone who can contribute to the greater good,

Dianne Flemington: 36:55

beautiful. So you answered that last question there too. You know, what will that allow you to be do and have sounds at the heart of who you are. That's why I'm so aligned with you. It's all about contribution and positive impact, giving back to the world. That's right. But what's something that scares you about growing older, and how do you manage that?

Unknown: 37:15

I think my greatest fear is that because I'm on my journey as I become more wise and I become more experienced, there's always the risk that I find that I've come to an end. I've come to a conclusion to my knowledge, or conclusion to my ex, and by that definition, I become fixed in my mindset, and that will be the biggest fear for me. And to be honest, it's something that I have to continuously remind myself. There have been occasions where, because it has been so well received in terms of a particular training or an element or or a topic or an idea, that I've done it a few times, that I feel that I've thoroughly known it that I have unknowingly or unwittingly gone into the fixed mindset that I've I know everything. And so then I do catch myself teaching rather than sharing my knowledge. And so then I need to reflect. I need to ask more questions. What else can I do to change this thinking that's forming in my mind. So my greatest fear is that I forget to do that. And as a person, I become fixed and assume that I know a lot, and that is the steadiest thing to me.

Dianne Flemington: 38:34

I get, that I can see that even in your expression, all right, who's the coolest, older person, you know, dead or alive, and what makes them cool to you? Okay,

Unknown: 38:45

so for me, the coolest person is Morgan Freeman, the actor, Morgan Freeman, has any has anyone raised that?

Dianne Flemington: 38:53

No, yeah, no. Actually, to be honest,

Unknown: 38:57

it's very easy to choose Morgan Freeman, and here's why, he was still in his 30s when he was doing Electric Company. I think some of us, I think your tribe, will know, if we spoke to anyone a little bit younger, they don't even know what it is. But yeah, so he was in electric company, and we all remember him from there. And in fact, he was in his 30s when he was doing that, and his first real major award was when he was 41 years old. That's when he started to actually get recognized for his acting ability. Whereas today is it's a given, it's a given. Morgan Freeman is an excellent actor. Is such a, such a such an icon. But until the age of 41 he hadn't even received an award for his acting ability and his breakthrough, his real Hollywood breakthrough, came when he was 50. At age 51 Okay, so only after that did it. Really shoot off his his whole acting career as a Hollywood star, shoot off. So I think that, and that's one of the reasons why is his school because he achieved success much later in his life, and to an to to a level of success where today we we don't even sort of recognize the fact that it was only from 50 years old until 80 is he's been such a star that that for for a lot of us, going to age 50, would be something where our career is ending, our our where we are slowing down, right? But his career only started at 50. In that sense, his success only started at 50. So that's, that's one of the things I find really cool about him. And to touch on that whole element of being active and Aging Gracefully and so on, he actually took his private pilot's license when he was 65 years old. Awesome. Love that. So that's something that not, you know, not, we don't think of starting something like that. That's like a major sort of a project that we don't think of starting at that, kind of, at that stage of a life. And so that that's really another element that's really cool. And of course, kind of a funny thing about Morgan Freeman is that for all intents and purposes, we think of him as the voice of God, right? We want an illustrative sort of picture. We kind of think of his voice. We think of him being graceful. And he's obviously taken several roles in movies where he's presented as the as the artifact of God, right? Interestingly, he's, he's not much of a religious person himself,

Dianne Flemington: 41:48

who can represent that which you're not.

Unknown: 41:51

Yeah. So, so for all these elements, I would think Morgan Freeman would be my choice of

Dianne Flemington: 41:59

the and well expressed, very well expressed Ganga around why he is your of choice. I love the Late Bloomer as a metaphor that I use all the time for myself. I'm a late bloomer, like all my success is going to come in my 70s and 80s hands down. I just know it. Thank you for the reminder. And now I have another icon to kind of look towards, because I'm always collecting those who are late bloomers. Thank you again. Thank you so much for being on the show today and sharing that, especially about how old you want to live and how important and what you're looking for. It's amazing to walk this path with another contributor. So that's wonderful. Care of yourself. Yes, you take care of yourself, and we'll chat with you soon. All right, take care bye. Bye. You