We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nathan Phillips. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nathan below.
Hi Nathan, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
The struggle of finding purpose is something that I think everyone goes through. Should go through at least.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always had this inner feeling that I could be more. Like everyone does when they’re a kid, I had dreams of doing this, being that, and, I was just really a day dreamer. As I look back and reflect on things though, the one thing that was always a common theme is that I was a leader.
In all of my day dreams, I was the one calling the shots. I was in charge, directing, delegating, leading the way for whatever cause I was dreaming about. And I had a lot of dreams, haha.
As time went on, I was put in a position in my childhood to grow, to lead, and to take care of certain aspects of my family life that are not normally the role of a kid to play. Being the oldest boy, I definitely took that responsibility seriously, and I think that started to kind of mold who I knew I was supposed to be one day.
It took several years, probably a decade or more, of looking at my surroundings, working hard, trying to “figure things out” and in the end, all I really had to do was look inside myself. Once I figured out that the answer for purpose, for significance, isn’t in the things you do or the materialistic things you gather and build in the outside world, everything just became so much easier.
Purpose and significance, to me, is about being the absolute best that you can be. Because that’s what the world needs. When you are the absolute best version of yourself, you will become exactly what you need to be and you will feel your purpose being fulfilled. The best father. The best husband. The best business person. None of that can be attained if you, the person striving for that, are not looking in the mirror each day and saying “okay, what in my life do I need to work on today?”
So the question is, how did I find purpose? I found it through years of hard work, self reflection, forgiveness, self care, and self love.
I have a leg up on a lot of people simply because I’m married. I’ve grown to love the phrase that my wife recently taught me, “Marriage is a mirror.” She’s right. It’s the greatest tool I’ve got and if you love yourself and commit to the hard work, your purpose will explode like fireworks at Disney World, haha.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Our goal is to help our clients facilitate one of the biggest changes in their lives. We’re a local real estate firm that focuses primarily on the residential side of things. We have over 15 years of collective experience on our team, and we’re continuing to grow the size of our team each year.
We take great pride in what we do, and the best part about it all is just being able to offer help, guidance, and support through such a big change. Whether it’s downsizing, upgrading, a divorce/lost loved one, a first time purchase….we handle it all. Going back the question on significance, there really is no better purpose than to be the best you can be and help others.
We’re very excited for what the future holds and have just implemented a marketing team, a client care support team, and will be continuing to roll things out as time goes on…and now that I think of it, we’re actually in the progress of launching our new social media! If you’re reading this, give us a quick follow and like please!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the three biggest qualities/skills that have played a role in things so far are:
1. Determination. No matter what life throws at you, just have to keep going. You’ll get knocked down, you’ll get beat up, but at the end of the day, you just have to pick yourself up and dust your knees. To quote a great band, you have to keep that attitude of having your hopes up high and your head down low.
2. Humility. This one’s tough. You have to be strong, confident, and just know that what you’re doing is the best thing to be done. At the same time though, you have to know that there is always more to learn, always someone who can teach you something. Just because you’re the best quarterback, doesn’t mean you’re the best line backer or wide receiver, and if you can keep that mentality then you’ll continue to be the best person you can be.
3. Focus. I’ll say it again, focus. There are so many things that life throws in front of you. It seems like it happens especially when you’re striving for more. With all the problems that come up though, you have to stay focused on the goal. Keep your sights set on what you started the journey for, and don’t lose sight of it.
If I could offer any advice to someone on these three things, it’s going to revert back to the beginning. Find yourself, your purpose, your significance, all by being the absolute best version of yourself…and when you do that, all of these things just kind of fall in line and come naturally.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Ha, I handle a lot most days. Especially here lately. My life would be a much bigger mess if it weren’t for the love and support of my wife who keeps things going on the home front, encourages me when I’m beating myself up, and helps keep my eyes on things that are in my blind spots.
When I get overwhelmed and am feeling stressed out, I tend to get quiet. To help with that, I listen to soft music, motivational speakers, audiobooks, meditate, pray, and I do a lot of that in my car while I’m driving. Having that quiet time and positivity spoken to me, even just 10-15 minutes of it, is a real recharge for me and helps me get my mind back on track.
Another thing I do is that I workout almost every single day, haha. Keeping my body in motion really helps to keep my mind flowing and makes it a whole lot easier to dump out all the garbage that tends to collect and build up there. Also (again, thanks to my wife), I eat a relatively clean diet. Sure we destroy Cookout milkshakes when the time is right, but generally speaking, it’s a lot of clean foods that promote good natural feelings.
The best advice I can give is to just find something that makes you feel free. Get your body in motion, free your mind, and just dump all of the negative crap out on the floor in front of you. Look at it, wipe it up, then you’re feeling fresh and recharged to take on more.
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- Website: www.findtriadhomesnow.com
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