Rob Jefferies

Texas A&M alumnus accidentally joins band, says he pretended to play for 4 years - lonestarlive.com

A month before his first semester began, Juarez received an email about orientation for the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, the nation’s most traveled collegiate marching band, which boasts over 300 members.

“I had only played band in the sixth grade, but it was kind of late to find alternative housing, so I just showed up,” he said in the post.

Talk about someone crushing Imposter Syndrome!

As we transition from the Thanksgiving holiday back to our routines, it’s easy to feel the drag of returning to work. Instead of seeing the holiday as something that’s behind us, why not carry the spirit of gratitude forward?

Here’s a quick exercise to help you reflect and reset:

1. What are three things you were grateful for this Thanksgiving holiday?
2. What are two things you are grateful for at work?
3. What is one thing you are looking forward to this week?

Answering these questions can help you appreciate the highlights of last week, recognize what’s working well in your professional life, and focus on something positive ahead.

LinkedIn Experts Question

Your team is resistant to frequent changes. How can you turn skepticism into enthusiasm?

Understand that everyone is not like you. They have different hopes, fears, and dreams. What seems logical and necessary to you can induce fear in others.

Create incremental demonstrations of trust. Do what you say you are going to do to show people you are true to your word. Many people view “change” as a precursor to being optimized out of a job. Your actions speak louder than your PowerPoint slides.

If you had asked Brian in the early 1980s what he did for a living, he would have said he played guitar and sang backup vocals for a band that toured the world. From the outside, Brian seemed like a successful musician, someone easy to label and stereotype.

But Brian wasn’t your typical musician. Besides writing hits, he loved science—a career he put on hold to join a British rock band. In the early 2000s, Brian returned to his original passion, and in August 2007, he earned his PhD in Astrophysics. Later, he worked with NASA on the mission to collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, successfully bringing them back to Earth.

Not bad for someone who co-wrote iconic hits like “We Will Rock You” and “Fat Bottomed Girls”—an impressive achievement for Brian May, the legendary guitarist of Queen.

Right Now…

Many of us believe our current job defines who we are. “I am an engineer,” “I am a product manager,” or “I am a musician.” We feel stuck on a path we cannot change, or think others—and even we ourselves—cannot see us in another role. But careers are transitory. You aren’t defined by the job you had in college. Even if you’ve worked at the same company for over a decade, your role has likely changed.

What if, when asked “What do you do?” or “What is your profession?”, you answered with “Right now…”? “Right now, I’m an engineer.” “Right now, I’m a product manager.”

“Right now” is freeing. It gives you permission to change and be something else. It acknowledges that we are not fixed in our current roles, companies, or industries. Life is full of transitions, and “Right now” simply reflects where we are today.

Sources:

• Brian May - Wikipedia
• Queen’s Brian May is a member of NASA’s New Horizon team | Dan Arel
• Queen’s Brian May helped NASA return its first asteroid sample | CNN

In the fall of 1995, I walked into the auditorium of my Intro to Management of Information Systems (MIS) class at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. I took my seat in the middle of the room and took in the smell of well-worn carpet mixed with fresh paint touching up the walls. At the front of the room stood Professor Dr. Michael Parks. He had the unmistakable look of a true computer nerd—someone who had fallen in love with computers long before they were personal.

During those first few class periods, Dr. Parks guided us through the history of computer science. We learned how to count in binary, explored the basics of data structures, and, most importantly, he tried to spark in us a genuine curiosity about how computers work. The fundamentals of which now seem so far removed from the perceived magic of our smartphones.

Dr. Parks had one phrase he repeated over and over throughout the semester—his first rule of solving any problem: “Step 1, get a good, firm grasp of the obvious.” To a 19-year-old college student, this advice seemed to hover somewhere between painfully simple and cryptic, like an ancient proverb hiding a deeper meaning.

Yet, this advice is etched into my memory from those undergraduate years. Nearly thirty years later, I understand the wisdom in what Dr. Parks was trying to convey. The first step in any journey is understanding the objective truth of where you are and what you know.

Getting a Good, Firm Grasp of the Obvious

Many people begin their journey to uncover their purpose from a place of dissatisfaction. They might feel unfulfilled in their job, frustrated with their boss, unhappy with their salary, or even disconnected in their personal relationships, health, marriage, or spiritual life. This dissatisfaction often leads to a sense of losing control, and the instinctive response is to think that regaining control requires making massive, sweeping changes.

A common mindset I find with my coaching clients is an “Either-Or” mindset. Their life is either great or terrible. They are either living their purpose or wandering lost. The first practical step to appreciating this in-between space and uncovering your purpose is to reset your mind to appreciate how your life truly is. This will provide a level playing field on which you can make bigger decisions about your future.

Grasping Gratitude

The most effective tool I have found for resetting our perception is the practice of gratitude. Gratitude requires us to seek the good in our life and break the negativity we may find ourselves in.

For clients, I recommend that before they embark on making big changes, they take a few weeks to ‘reset their perspective’ with a gratitude practice.

Every day, focus on these three questions, trying not to repeat answers from a prior day:

1. What one thing are you grateful for in your job or profession?
2. What one thing are you grateful for in your personal life?
3. What is one negative thing that did not happen today?

Repeating this process daily will help reframe your mindset positively and establish a strong foundation for developing your future plan.

Conclusion

Finding purpose and creating meaningful change in your life doesn’t always require dramatic overhauls. Often, it starts with small, consistent actions—like cultivating gratitude—that help you get a good, firm grasp of the obvious.

A common theme in my coaching sessions with clients—and one I’ve personally struggled with over the years—is the elusive goal of “finding my purpose.”

This struggle to find one’s purpose often begins when young professionals enter the workforce and feel disillusioned by the day-to-day reality of work, which often contrasts sharply with the curated views presented by social media influencers. This challenge often resurfaces later in life as the so-called “midlife crisis,” when we start to wonder if there’s more to life.

Many of us believe that if we were just smart enough or worked hard enough, we could uncover our purpose, like finding a set of lost keys. We also tend to think that if we haven’t found our purpose, we have somehow failed.

I suggest a different way to look at purpose. Instead of seeing it as something fixed that must be discovered, think of it as something that evolves over time, gradually building up layer by layer. I call this Purpose Stacking.

In the upcoming series of posts, I will explore the concept of Purpose Stacking. I’ll share concrete tools, methods, and mindsets to help you discover your purpose and integrate it into your everyday life.

The first step on our Purpose Stacking journey will be to “get a good firm grasp of the obvious!”

When receiving advice, understanding its context is crucial. Advice that fits perfectly in one scenario may not apply in another, and the difference often comes down to the stakes and environment in which it is given.

Consider the words of Chris Kraft, a key figure in NASA’s early space program, who once said, “If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.”(1) As NASA’s first flight director, Kraft operated in an environment where failure was not an option. During the 1960s space race, even a small mistake could result in disaster. With lives on the line and no room for error, careful deliberation was essential. In this context, doing nothing until the right course of action was clear was often the wisest choice.

Contrast this with the advice from Dr. Kenneth Chafin, a former pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, TX. Dr. Chafin often counseled those facing difficult times with, “If you don’t know what to do, do what you know, until you know what to do.” His advice was aimed at people feeling lost or uncertain about their next steps. In these moments of indecision, he encouraged them to lean on their existing knowledge, training, or spiritual foundation to move forward. The goal was to break through the paralysis of uncertainty by focusing on familiar actions until clarity emerged.

While Kraft’s advice emphasizes caution in high-stakes situations, Dr. Chafin’s encourages action, grounded in familiar routines, in lower-stakes or more personal contexts. Both pieces of advice are valid within their own settings. In a high-stakes environment like NASA’s, the cost of a wrong move can be catastrophic, making restraint crucial. In everyday life, however, taking small, known steps can help build momentum and provide direction when the path ahead is unclear.

Understand the context behind any advice you receive. Ask yourself: What situation does this advice come from, and how does it relate to my current circumstances? By discerning the context, you can better navigate your decisions and choose the path that suits you best.

(1): From the book “Apollo” by Catherine Bly Cox, Charles Murray