In this episode of Beyond Your Default, George and Liz explore the heart of the Superhuman Framework with its "4 Cornerstones"—Love, Purpose, Passion, and Persistence. These foundational elements are the keys to building a fulfilling, resilient life beyond the default. But unlike simple principles, they’re deeply personal forces that help us navigate life’s challenges and triumphs with authenticity and strength.
Together, they dig into what each cornerstone means in real, actionable terms. From love as the connection fueling our relationships and pursuits, to purpose as the compass guiding us through uncertainty, to passion as the energy that makes hard work feel worthwhile, and persistence as the grit to keep going—these are more than just words; they’re essential to living a life aligned with who we truly are.
If you’re ready to ask yourself, “What kind of life am I building?” and “What drives me to keep going when things get tough?” then this episode will serve as both inspiration and a practical guide. Whether you’re starting fresh or looking to reignite your journey, the 4 Cornerstones offer a roadmap to live intentionally and meaningfully, with purpose and joy in every step.
🌱 Related Episodes:
How to Make Vulnerability Your Superpower Is Self-Care Selfish, Bullsh*t, or Actually Valuable? ✨ Takeaway Quote: "You're the architect of your own life. What you build—and the passion, purpose, and persistence you bring to it—is what makes the journey extraordinary."
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In this episode of Beyond Your Default, George and Liz explore the heart of the Superhuman Framework with its "4 Cornerstones"—Love, Purpose, Passion, and Persistence. These foundational elements are the keys to building a fulfilling, resilient life beyond the default. But unlike simple principles, they’re deeply personal forces that help us navigate life’s challenges and triumphs with authenticity and strength.
Together, they dig into what each cornerstone means in real, actionable terms. From love as the connection fueling our relationships and pursuits, to purpose as the compass guiding us through uncertainty, to passion as the energy that makes hard work feel worthwhile, and persistence as the grit to keep going—these are more than just words; they’re essential to living a life aligned with who we truly are.
If you’re ready to ask yourself, “What kind of life am I building?” and “What drives me to keep going when things get tough?” then this episode will serve as both inspiration and a practical guide. Whether you’re starting fresh or looking to reignite your journey, the 4 Cornerstones offer a roadmap to live intentionally and meaningfully, with purpose and joy in every step.
🌱 Related Episodes:
How to Make Vulnerability Your Superpower Is Self-Care Selfish, Bullsh*t, or Actually Valuable? ✨ Takeaway Quote: "You're the architect of your own life. What you build—and the passion, purpose, and persistence you bring to it—is what makes the journey extraordinary."
Creators & Guests
Host
George B. Thomas
A catalyst for growth!
Host
Liz Moorehead
Content therapist and speaker.
What is Beyond Your Default?
What Is Beyond Your Default? "Everyone keeps telling me I should be happy, but I'm not." “I feel stuck.” “I have a calling, but where do I start?"
Right now, you have a choice. You can continue living within your default norms, playing it safe, clocking in and out every day, and scraping by to achieve what's supposed to make you happy hopefully. Or you can choose to accept the challenge of living beyond your default. Stop wishing to live your "best life” and start living your best life. Success leaves clues. And they're waiting for you to discover them.
George B. Thomas:
Passion matters because it turns effort into excellence. I want you to ask yourself, is the effort that I'm applying coming out the other side as excellence? You see, passion, it keeps you energized. It keeps you curious. It keeps you creative.
George B. Thomas:
And when you're passionate about something, you're willing to go beyond the bare minimum. Clock in, clock out, and you're more willing to strive for greatness, significance versus success. Without passion, it's easy to burn out or lose interest over time, but passion makes the journey enjoyable, not just at
Liz Moorhead:
Welcome back to the Beyond Your Default podcast. I'm your host, Liz Morehead. And as always, I'm joined with one of my favorite humans on this planet, George b Thomas. How are you?
George B. Thomas:
I'm doing great because I get to hang with one of my favorite humans as well. Liz Morehead. Hey. I'm doing good. How are you doing?
Liz Moorhead:
Super. That's very convenient. We should just keep doing that. Our favorite humans on a podcast. Let's just do that.
Liz Moorhead:
But it is my favorite thing though that we get to do something we love with someone that we love. Like, that just makes it all happy and warm and fuzzy for me.
George B. Thomas:
And for people that we love.
Liz Moorhead:
That's right.
George B. Thomas:
You can do that. That's you listeners, by the way.
Liz Moorhead:
We do love you. So, George, kick us off. What's your highlight and your low light from the weekend?
George B. Thomas:
Highlight was that I actually took some time to relax.
Liz Moorhead:
A little time for self care?
George B. Thomas:
Well, I didn't do any self care per se, unless you just say chilling out for a little bit is self care. I went with the wife, and we did some shopping, and we watched a football game and, you know, just average everyday normal human stuff, which was fun and exciting. And it's not a low light, but that was one day. Right? So one day, I actually did work quite a bit, and then one day, I did take time to actually relax.
Liz Moorhead:
And I'll be honest. Based on my Slack, I can tell which day that was.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. I I worked Saturday. I took Sunday off. I'm not sure if this is a low light or if I just have a problem, and I might just have a problem. But I got done with something on Saturday and realized that I had created a 128 page document.
George B. Thomas:
And I was like, oh my god. Like, what is wrong with me? So the diagnosis is out. Maybe that's a little bit of a low light of, like, wow. How did that happen?
George B. Thomas:
But,
Liz Moorhead:
but yeah. Document that's coming my way?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. Okay. That's Maybe, eventually, it might be coming your way. So I'll explain more in-depth when the podcast is over.
Liz Moorhead:
So That
George B. Thomas:
that might be your low light right now. I don't know.
Liz Moorhead:
Well, whenever you give me a big pile of words, it usually starts as a and then we usually end up in a really happy spot. I always like big piles of words. It means you've got something baking in that old noggin of yours, which I always really like. My low light is I'm just gonna throw this out there based on when we are recording this. And you and I were talking a little bit about this before we started recording, is that it's just really hard watching what is happening in Western North Carolina and Oh, yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
And Eastern Tennessee right now, after hurricane Helene. I don't wanna get too much into it because it's not a tragedy that I really wanna center around myself or deeply personalized, but it is heartbreaking to watch literal towns just vanish off a map forever.
George B. Thomas:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I have family up there. So over the weekend, it was, like, trying to get a hold of people who don't have Internet or cell service to see if they're, like, still okay. So, yes, I hear you.
Liz Moorhead:
In a highlight capacity, I am up in New England right now, house sitting for dear friends of mine. They have 2 sweet cats, and I've just got this big house in Windsor, Connecticut all to myself. And the highlight of this weekend is I spent 2 days completely on my own, and this was on purpose. I went hiking. I did journaling.
Liz Moorhead:
I did a lot of refocusing on myself, and I'm actually teeing that off for this entire week to be a hard reset week in my life to disconnect and reconnect as much as possible so I could go into the end of year strong and really think about, you know, I've spent the past 18 months really more in a survivor mentality, and in some parts of that time, that was kind of what was required. Right? I made a lot of big changes. I had to move a lot of things around. I had to do some very hard things.
Liz Moorhead:
And now I've started coming out of it, but I am having this moment of, oh, I get to have goals. I get to have things that I am
George B. Thomas:
Oh, yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
Actually working toward. It's not just about, oh, thank god. I woke up this morning, and I have breath in my lungs, and I don't feel like, you know, everything is sitting on my chest. You know?
George B. Thomas:
I mean, although breath in your lungs is a good thing.
Liz Moorhead:
Yes. It's just a matter of I wanna start building things again instead of just making it through. And I've already started doing that, but I'm looking at this opportunity to be completely out of my usual routines, but also back by my favorite park. So there's this park in middle of New Haven, of all places, where it's like a big 2 and a half, 3 mile loop. And up here, the leaves are turning because it's the they get beautiful fall colors up here first.
Liz Moorhead:
And I was out there twice this weekend, and I just felt life reentering my body. And it reminded me how important it is to make sure we are nurturing our souls in addition to making sure, are we getting this done? Am I getting that done? Am I doing this? Am I doing that?
Liz Moorhead:
Am I showing up? Am I checking this box? Am I do it? I feel more like myself than I have in a really long time. Now don't get me wrong.
Liz Moorhead:
Coming up here, I was in good shape. It's just a matter of, alright, time to level back up again.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. I love those moments in life when you just kind of reset, reboot, refocus. It's great.
Liz Moorhead:
So that's what I'm using it for, and it's my favorite time of year. I know people are a big fan of spring cleaning, but I'm a big fan of harvest cleaning, because fall time is all about the harvest. So you're pulling things metaphorically and literally out of the land. You are reaping what you have sown throughout the year, but you're also taking a look at what didn't. And I think that's often something that gets really missed in that narrative around spring cleaning, harvesting, all the I find the harvest time of year to be a much more fruitful time to do that, because you can see what you planted and what failed.
Liz Moorhead:
You can see what crops failed. You can see what parts of the land did not prosper the way they were supposed to prosper. It really gives you an opportunity to truly audit your efforts or where you are investing your time and energy and with whom.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
So that's what I'm using this time for
George B. Thomas:
Love it.
Liz Moorhead:
Which is exciting. But today
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. This actually, today is very interesting that we're having this conversation. And based on what you just said and where you're at in life, it's interesting that we're having this conversation, but that happens so many times.
Liz Moorhead:
It happens all the time. What do we so
George B. Thomas:
many times.
Liz Moorhead:
All the time. I so many times I get off this podcast and go, okay. That podcast was for me. I mean, it's for you guys too. But you know?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
But today, we're digging deeper into a topic that you teased a bit last week. Right? We're talking about the superhuman framework. Now, for long time listeners, first time callers, or even those who are new to the show, let me just give you a quick background. So the superhuman framework is this practical, actionable road map that's built from years of George's hands on experience working both with individual people and with businesses.
Liz Moorhead:
And the framework itself is centered around 10 core principles. The 10 h's, if you will, that you can use to systematically elevate every area of your life from your well-being to your professional success and everything in between. And those 10 pillars are happy, hungry, helpful, humble, humorous, honest, healthy, holistic, human, and holiness. Holiness, if you've listened to that episode and by the way, there is an episode for every single pillar. I wanna point that one out very quickly.
Liz Moorhead:
That is nurturing the soul regardless of your belief structure.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
Whether that is Jesus, the flying spaghetti man in the sky, Allah, or quite frankly, just science.
George B. Thomas:
It could be the magic muffin. It's totally up to you. No judgment. That happens.
Liz Moorhead:
But to put in this into context, I want you to think of your life like a house. Right? You are building and designing a house to perfectly suit your needs. Right? So when we are building our lives, like, I was just talking about this at the very beginning.
Liz Moorhead:
Right? I'm sitting here realizing I get to go out and build my life. I don't have to just survive and wake up and breathe. I now am in a designing mode. Right?
Liz Moorhead:
And that's where we all are right now. If you are listening to this, you are the architect of your own life, your own house, if you will. Now keep in mind what makes your life house perfect for you is wildly different for me. Like my dream house, 1 floor rancher, somewhere cool, literally, like, I love cold weather, but also Nope. Kinda hip and cool.
Liz Moorhead:
I know. I know. I will see you on your cruises as you wave on by. But I also want some rooms that have lots of light, but I also want ones that are dark and cozy. I want a big home office, a bright kitchen.
Liz Moorhead:
The style that I tend to gravitate toward is very kind of like a eclectic maximalist traditional, lots of colors, rich textures. One of my friends said looking at my apartment is like looking at the world's most interesting 80 year old man, so take from that what you will. But, George, your dream home, I'm gonna guess, does not sound anything like that.
George B. Thomas:
No. Not really. Other than the large office, I will agree with that. And I like a lot of light. So Yeah.
George B. Thomas:
But but totally different.
Liz Moorhead:
Yeah. Yours is different. Our listeners, if you're listening to this, your dream house is likely different from mine. However, each of our dream homes, regardless of how they look, share foundational elements like a roof, strong walls, floors, all of these. And that's what we mean when we say core principles.
Liz Moorhead:
They are the roof, the windows, the doors. They are the foundational elements that we all have in common.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
That we all need to look toward in order to, from a 360 degree view, live this life beyond our default. But there are 4 cornerstones within the foundation, if you will. Right? Yeah. Because we have our roofs, we have our windows, we have our walls, we have our doors, all of those good things, but we have the cornerstones of our foundation, the strength underpinning our home.
Liz Moorhead:
And there are 4 of them. That's what we are talking about today.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. I'm excited to talk about this because and by the way, just being completely honest with listeners, you know, if you go back to the original podcast episode, you realize that this superhuman framework sat in a Google Doc for 2 years before it even saw the light of day. And so as I kinda started to really journey down this brainstorming session and getting it built out and bringing it to the world, I realized, fundamentally, there were some things missing. Not in the actual h pillars, but in the thing that drives them. Like, Liz, I want us to start to think about as you ask me questions around this.
George B. Thomas:
I feel like with the 10 h's, I built the car, but I didn't give people the gas or the GPS to get to mile marker a 1000 or 10000 or have, like you know what I mean? And so these are the you you'll see. You'll see.
Liz Moorhead:
No. I love that analogy, though, because it's one of those things where it's like, great. Love your car. What's the fuel to get there? What's the map?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
Right? What are the things that actually make us go forward, give us that drive, that momentum, that energy, that direction?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
And And one of my favorite things about this, and I I'm just wanna tease this. My favorite thing about this particular episode is we are going to get into a topic which we do have a whole episode dedicated toward, but it was something where you and I had talked about and went, holy cannoli. How is this the root of everything and somehow absent from our discussion?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
Not anymore.
George B. Thomas:
Not anymore.
Liz Moorhead:
So George, why do we even have cornerstones to the superhuman framework? Why aren't the 10 pillars enough on their own? How How does this all fit together?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah, Liz. And it's it's a great question. You know, it it gets to the heart of what the superhuman framework is as we start to piece all this together. When we talk about the 4 cornerstones of the superhuman framework and, by the way, love, purpose, passion, and persistence, those are the 4. We're really talking about the why behind everything we do.
George B. Thomas:
By the way, the do's, the h pillars. Right? The why, these four cornerstones. So these are emotional and motivational forces if you think about love, purpose, passion, and persistence. Emotional and motivational forces that keep us grounded.
George B. Thomas:
I want you to think of them as the deep roots of a tree. They hold everything together. They give us strength and they help us, weather the storms of life, if you will. Without that sense of love for what we do or a purpose guiding our path or the passion that fuels our excitement or persistence to keep going when things get tough, well, we'd be like leaves blowing in the wind. Directionless.
George B. Thomas:
Just wherever life takes us and I mean, you even mentioned goals and reboot and reset. It's time to stop being leaves in life, listeners, and have some direction. I think these cornerstones help us with that, which, by the way, I can say this because I've had many years of my life where I was just blowing around aimlessly, not having any type of direction. So if you think about the 10 h's, those are the key traits and daily habits. Alright?
George B. Thomas:
So that the h pillars are the key traits and daily habits that we develop to live a superhuman life or to be a superhuman in a life that is a journey beyond our default, our our stuck status, or our place that we put as far as a ceiling over us. The h pillars, they're the practical side of things. Right? Liz listed off happiness, health, humility, humor, all of those good qualities that help us navigate the day to day life that we have. Those pillars, you could think of them since we're using a tree analogy, like branches of the same tree that we talked about the roots.
George B. Thomas:
These pillars are stretching out into different areas of our lives, helping us to grow and thrive in a balanced way. To really answer your question, Liz, it's not really a matter of whether the 10 Hs could stand on their own. I mean, they are absolutely essential. Each one can stand kind of by itself, but they shine brighter when they're anchored in something deeper. And the cornerstones are what keep you going when the going gets tough, but the 10 h's are how you show up every day and live it out.
George B. Thomas:
Okay. I want I have to say that again because I want people to grasp that. The cornerstones are what keep you going when the going gets tough, but the 10 h's are the how you show up every day to live it out. The cornerstones are the why, and the 10 h's are the how. You see, you need both.
George B. Thomas:
You can't live with just 1 or the other. And I'll put it this way. If your purpose is to make a real impact in the world, you've gotta stay hungry for growth, be helpful to others, and, of course, keep your health in check both physically and mentally. But without that sense of purpose, those daily actions might start to feel hollow and, at the same time, if you've got purpose but aren't practicing those daily traits, you might burn out or lose balance. You see, the magic happens when they come together, and that's why both the 4 cornerstones and the 10 pillars are necessary, or at least in my life, and if you wanna take this framework and run with it for your own life, are necessary because they work hand in hand to help us live extraordinary lives, lives beyond our default.
George B. Thomas:
They give us the power to not just survive, but to thrive, both personally, by the way, and professionally. I know right now you're listening to Beyond Your Default and it's a personal growth podcast newsletter community, all of that good stuff. But we've literally been taking this conversation on the road into professional settings as well and even professional podcast, and it resonates with people in company cultures, in team dynamics, in individual growth. So all of this, it's about creating a life beyond our default where we feel fulfilled, we feel grounded, and we're excited to face whatever comes next, Liz. That's why these work hand in hand and go together, and now nothing feels missing.
Liz Moorhead:
Well, I love how you're describing this whole interaction, particularly the part where you're talking about, like, what are you gonna do? Get up every day and do stuff and not really have a reason behind it? No why? No purpose? No passion?
Liz Moorhead:
No reason to be or to do. You know, one of the things that I'm actually focusing on over this weekend is, like, so how do I determine what I wanna do? Well, why am I here? What are the things that I love? What is the purpose that I am bringing to this world?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. It's interesting because to hear you say that, my brain goes 2 places. It's the why and then because of my friend, Mick Hunt, the because. Like, understanding our why and our because is, like, super crazy cool and an important piece. And when you have that element that you're starting to rebuild and you layer on what we're talking about, the superhuman framework, the pillars, and the cornerstones
Liz Moorhead:
Let me just ask really quickly. When we say why because, it is very similar to a very emotional conversation we had. I can't remember what episode it was, but it was one where you were like, ladies and gentlemen, she's stopped speaking. We're hitting later. It was when you were asking me why I do what I do, and I said, well, I am here to help other people shine as brightly as possible by understanding that they can only do so and help others do the same if they shine first because I know what it's like to feel voiceless.
Liz Moorhead:
And that is something that is very personal to me.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. And the because is the hardest to answer, but it's what gives you the most fuel. So here, I'll give you another example of kinda like yours list. Why am I so fixated on being one of the premier educators in any space that I walk into? Because I had a math teacher, an educator who told me I would never amount to anything.
George B. Thomas:
Why am I so hell bent on chasing significance in my life? Because I started in a one room log cabin with no running water, feeling very insignificant to life itself. They are matches that when you understand why you do the why that you are called for, and it's because of the thing that you can attach to in your past, now you have direction and fuel for, again, what we're talking about today, the superhuman framework.
Liz Moorhead:
So before we get into each of the 4 because you are gonna you are gonna take us through each of them and then just like the pillars, guys
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
We're going to have episodes for each of them. So don't you worry if there's one that really speaks to your soul. We're gonna be going cliff diving into each of these topics. But how did you choose them? How did these end up becoming the 4?
George B. Thomas:
It's a great question. Like, let me start at high level because we could go real therapy session real quick here. So You would do you need me
Liz Moorhead:
to proactively give you a house or just move off?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. Hold hold on. So we'll start high level. So love, purpose, passion, and persistence became the foundation or the cornerstones of the superhuman framework. When I was putting this framework together, I wanted to identify what truly drives people to live extraordinary lives.
George B. Thomas:
It's not just about success or achievement. At least, for me, it's about what's behind the scenes, the force that keeps people pushing forward no matter what. So I asked myself, like, what's the core motivation that allows someone to live to their fullest potential? And I started by asking myself personally, like, what elements have helped me live a life live my life, survive my life, and become who I am today? Which, by the way, the more I talk to people, they're like, dude, who you are today is crazy, especially compared to where you come from.
George B. Thomas:
But starting to dig inward, what were the elements that I just natively, like, pulled in and grabbed and used? And then I started to study other folks who, by my perception, were living a life that seemed to be beyond their default. And, Liz, after studying myself and studying other humans who had overcome challenges and created or were creating impact in the world, it became clear that these four cornerstones, love, purpose, passion, persistence, they were nonnegotiables. If you look at Michael Hyatt, I can tell you right now pretty much what he does ties back to love. He's very purposeful and he's passionate about what he does.
George B. Thomas:
If you look at, you know oh, man. I just can start to pull so many people. Like, these elements are in there. They're universal and they apply to almost every aspect of life, whether you're talking, again, about personal growth, professional achievement, team dynamics, culture. Like, you can find the thread of these in almost everything.
George B. Thomas:
I'm gonna break these down, but do you wanna pick at that a little bit? Because I did mention it could be therapy chair or maybe not, but it's up to you.
Liz Moorhead:
Oh, I wanna pick.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. I figured.
Liz Moorhead:
I like how you're just learning. When is Liz activated?
George B. Thomas:
I could continue on, but Liz has something. I'm sure.
Liz Moorhead:
Well, I mean, I was sitting here writing down a note that I wanted to come back to that before we moved on. So, yeah, I wanna talk a bit about this idea of these are the things that we love. We do this from a place of love, and maybe this is a bit existential. This is a point where you can say, Liz, we pick this, but this is this is part of that episode. Sometimes it's hard to know what you love.
Liz Moorhead:
Sometimes finding that clarity. Sometimes finding that because you were sitting there rattling off examples of, like, if you peel back the layers on successful people, like, if I even look at you, if I look at our friend Mick, if I look at one of my favorite humans who's in a completely different industry, he's doing it for the love of a group of people who are fundamentally not advocated for in that particular industry. Right? When we think about all of these different pieces and why these are the 4, there is a pattern. There are these 4 elements that just keep recurring over.
Liz Moorhead:
But I think maybe it's the spooked little voice in me is what if I get it wrong? What if I pick the wrong thing? What if I can't figure out that answer? Yeah. I know.
Liz Moorhead:
Great great episode.
George B. Thomas:
Fantastic. No. No. Ladies
Liz Moorhead:
and gentlemen, if you need us.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. So you know the amount of things that I've loved in my life? That's the thing. Like and this is gonna go completely sideways, and then I'll dive into these four things. But I'm gonna take this second to go sideways.
George B. Thomas:
The problem with that little voice is it's talking about mistakes instead of a journey. When when everything comes from love, then it's about loving the thing that you love at that moment in time. This goes back to many podcasts ago. We talked about being a a transition specialist, being able to pivot. I loved design and development.
George B. Thomas:
I loved podcasting. I loved video. What did we do? We transitioned. We pivoted.
George B. Thomas:
It's not like anything was happening wrong. It's just that and by the way, there was always a core thing around the podcast, the video. It was the center was HubSpot. Like, I loved HubSpot. I loved the HubSpot community, but all these AI right now, like, I'm nerding out with AI.
George B. Thomas:
But why? Because it's around the marketing content creation community. Right? So it's less about getting things wrong and allowing yourself just to love the thing that excites you. Like so let's let's actually start to break this down a little bit.
George B. Thomas:
Love, at least love in the context of the superhuman framework, is all about the deep connection. Those are key words there, deep connection that you have with yourself, with others, and with the work or things that you do. So it it's a deep connection with yourself, with others, your work, or the things that you do. Love is the energy that fuels relationships and the care that you put into your passions. Notice, Liz, I didn't say passion, so you can't get it wrong because it can be passions.
George B. Thomas:
And by the way, this isn't just like romantic love, though that can be part of it. If you go back to our episode when we talked about agape and the different types of love, like, it's the love for your journey. It's the love for your purpose. It's the love for the people around you. Like, imagine a teacher who absolutely loves what they do.
George B. Thomas:
Liz, they don't just show up for a paycheck. They genuinely care about the kids that they teach. They're the ones who stay late to help a student who's struggling, who find creative ways to make lessons engaging, and who genuinely believe in the potential of every single child. By the way, I'm talking about children, but I could be talking about myself right now with humans. Right?
George B. Thomas:
Because I'm willing to work extra, stay up late, build special things. That love forms their work from just a job into something deeply fulfilling and impactful. Liz, I believe this is why it's so easy for me to say I don't go to work. I go to play. Right?
George B. Thomas:
So so why does that matter if we think about love in that way? Because love is what makes life rich and meaningful. When you love what you do or who you surround yourself with, it creates resilience. We'll dive a little bit more into that later. You're more willing to put in the effort.
George B. Thomas:
You're more willing to make sacrifices. You're more willing to go the extra mile because you're not just going through the motions, you're actually invested. Without love, you might find success, but it's unlikely to be fulfilling, and that success might not even be sustainable. So, Liz, that's my take on love as far as a cornerstone of the superhuman framework. I know you probably have questions for me.
Liz Moorhead:
You know, it actually reminds me of something because I was sitting here. This is where our listeners are gonna get a little bit of insider baseball on how you and I work together. Because we've talked about the fact that, you know, in the best way possible, this is a building the boat while you're sailing it kinda scenario. We are walking on this journey ourselves. We are workshopping this material ourselves.
Liz Moorhead:
The reason why you hear some of these concepts shift over time is because George and I are using ourselves as a human laboratory. And I bring up this specific example not to poke fun at you, George, but the reason why self care was a joke earlier is go back and listen to the self care episode. Originally, George didn't wanna do it because he was like, why are we why are we here? Why would it Why are we talking about this? Alright, white woman on Instagram.
Liz Moorhead:
What are we doing here? Right? What I'm noticing is that the 4 cornerstones are all the same raw material energy, and the 4 contexts in which they show up. Because there because if you think about you know how whenever I write our newsletter, beyondredefault.comforward/newsletter, I often bring science in it because usually what is small, what is big. You know, it's we the universe is built.
Liz Moorhead:
And I'm not saying universe in some sort of woo woo sense. I would say literally the universe, the stars, the galaxies, like, the actual star stuff. Everything is big. Everything is small. Leaves look it's it's a whole studying science is a great way to understand how all of these different things work, and it just it reminds me of the conversation though to get back to love specifically for a second.
Liz Moorhead:
I wrote an issue about the idea of risk because a friend of mine asked me once, why is taking risks so hard? And whenever somebody throws a little thought grenade like that into my brain, I usually let it sit. Right? I'm like, oh, I know I'm gonna write about that, but I'm not ready to write about it yet. So I'll let it sit passively, subconsciously in the back of my head.
Liz Moorhead:
And then one day, while I was running on a track at my gym at Pitt Moyer Rec Center in Annapolis, it started to pop out. Suddenly, I just thought to myself, that's not the real question. Because I realized, well, I could have 2 equitably sized and shaped risks in front of me. Like, let's pretend we can actually physically manifest what these risks look like. Like, they're about the size each of them are about the size of softballs.
Liz Moorhead:
Each of them are, you know, equitable in terms of the effort it would take to put into the risk, take the risk, as well as the reward. But one is blue and one is green, and they're just different things. Yet for some reason, the risk in my left hand will feel harder for me to overcome to do than the one in my right. So I'm like, well, wait a minute. Then the real question is, why do some risks feel easier than others, and why do some feel harder than others?
Liz Moorhead:
And so I sat further with it, and it's like, oh, because one I really effing want. So I have equal amounts of fear and concerns in both of those cases, but the desire, the purpose, the love, the whatever is greater with risk a in my left hand than it is in b. But the problem is we often don't sit down to do the work and decide what is worth fighting for, what is worth risking the biscuit for. And that's where we end up getting stuck, and I just thought that was really interesting to think about it that way. That often the reason why we will lack that motivation to move forward is because we haven't sat down and said, well, what the heck is worth fighting for?
George B. Thomas:
Well, there's
Liz Moorhead:
What do we love?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. I totally agree with you, and I'm gonna because, you know, this podcast is about, like, you say things, and then my brain goes a certain way. I say things. Your brain goes a certain way. But I would also say this to your friend.
George B. Thomas:
The more risks you take, the easier they become to take. It also is to tell
Liz Moorhead:
which ones you don't wanna take because you don't have to take all
George B. Thomas:
of them. The other thing too is when you realize you don't have anything to lose, then you're willing to take the risk. But there's a whole another episode on it's not really yours. So it's not really yours. Why do you keep trying to control it?
George B. Thomas:
And when you realize it's not yours and you can't control it, then taking risks become really easy.
Liz Moorhead:
We have to do an episode about this, so because, oh, we're definitely gonna have a risk conversation clearly. Because my thought too is that once you get really clear on what, who, why you love that that big reason, the why, the because, it makes it really easy to realize which risks are ones you should actually be putting your energy toward and which ones will always just feel empty because it's just it's just not your bag.
George B. Thomas:
And I'll warn the listeners when we get to that episode, you might wanna buckle up because I love taking risks.
Liz Moorhead:
I will tell you as much as I contain multitudes in the way that an unhinged 28 minute voice memo at 3 AM contains multitudes. Your girl is not afraid of risk taking. We're gonna take you to school. Okay. That's going on the calendar.
Liz Moorhead:
Risk taking. Alright.
George B. Thomas:
So so let's drive into purpose. Right? So that was that was all out of love. So let's talk about purpose. It's funny that you mentioned energy because purpose literally is the driving force that gives your life meaning.
George B. Thomas:
It's the why behind everything you do. When you're clear on your purpose, it aligns your actions with your values. It's what gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps you going even when things get tough. A good example of this, a real world example might be an entrepreneur. I don't know.
George B. Thomas:
I know a few of them. Who starts a nonprofit organization to combat homelessness. We're just gonna use that as our example. This person could have chosen a more traditional career path, but they felt a strong pool to help those in need because they themselves have experienced hardship. They've seen it firsthand.
George B. Thomas:
They've felt it firsthand. So their purpose is to make a difference in the world by creating housing solutions, and that mission guides all their decision. That mission guides all their decisions. Listeners, I would ask you, with what you're doing right now, who you are, do you feel it is a mission, and is it guiding your decisions? Even when funding for this entrepreneur is tight or progress is slow, their purpose keeps them focused and motivated.
George B. Thomas:
So this matters because purpose is I want you to think of it as the compass that keeps you on track. It it's the difference between feeling aimless and feeling driven. Without purpose, it's easy to get distracted or discouraged when obstacles appear, but when you have a clear sense of purpose, setbacks don't derail you. They just become challenges to overcome. By the way, I knew because my purpose was to be a great educator, I wasn't worried on viral videos.
George B. Thomas:
I was worried on creating value to the world. Purpose gives you the resilience. By the way, that's the second time you've heard this word in us talking about these cornerstones, to persist, which we'll be talking about in a little bit, in the face of adversity because you know why you're doing what you're doing. Listeners, do you know why you're doing what you're doing right now in this time of life? It's it's a hard question, but I would beg you to ask it.
George B. Thomas:
Liz, I'm pretty sure you're probably gonna have thoughts or questions for me before I move on to passion. Yeah. You're holding up your notes. Yes.
Liz Moorhead:
Anytime you see me looking away, Liz is either look except pickup or this. Here's what I find fascinating about purpose. It is both easy and hard because I think you know, when I think about what I see a lot of growth minded people both excited about and quite frankly panicked about is their ability to either define or their inability to to define what their purpose is. But I loved the way you talk about it or talked about it just now because it's a lot simpler than people think it is. Meaning, you don't have to have some grand sweeping narrative.
Liz Moorhead:
You just have to be able to latch on to a bite sized piece of what you know your real purpose is. Because often what will happen and at least, you know, I say this at you know, I will be 42 years young later this month, and I know you just turned what? 29?
George B. Thomas:
35 if we go backwards, but yeah. Shoot. We're not gonna 53.
Liz Moorhead:
I've gotta be honest. We need to talk, we need to do an episode where I ask you all the things about, like, that usually TikTok influencers. I actually want you to track your skincare routine, and that head of hair that you hide under that hat is freaking wild.
George B. Thomas:
It is Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
You have found some sort of fountain of youth and maybe it's just love, passion, purpose, and persistence.
George B. Thomas:
There you go. It's a superhuman framework, ladies and gentlemen. Take your model today.
Liz Moorhead:
Also, snappy hoodies. But what I've learned in life is that sometimes, it's enough to say that your purpose is simply because I love helping people. Yeah. Because That's so
George B. Thomas:
true purpose, by the way.
Liz Moorhead:
Yeah. But, like, it's simple. Right? It doesn't have to have this, my purpose is to this, that, the other. Like, I've seen workbooks dedicated to purpose and it's like, guys, by the time I finish this workbook that you're forcing people to download so they'll watch your dumb course and listen to your dumb thing, I will be 75 by the time I actually finish this workbook.
Liz Moorhead:
And by then, like, I've run out of a lot of years
George B. Thomas:
to actually live my purpose.
Liz Moorhead:
Right? Yeah. It can be simple. It can just like just grasping
George B. Thomas:
onto these small
Liz Moorhead:
micro core and then allow your purpose to kind of unveil itself. Your purpose in defining it is both the act of living your purpose and the act of discovering your purpose. Just don't push yourself too hard. You don't have to have it all figured out. Like, for a really long time, my purpose was just literally simply help people be honest as in health.
Liz Moorhead:
Like, that's it. Like, that that was it. Make content not suck. And then as I started pulling back the layers, it becomes more clear.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. And by the way and we can keep it to what we're talking about today, but I would say with anything, if you wait to do it until you got it all figured out, first of all, you ain't gonna do it. And you have to get comfortable with just figuring it out along the journey. That's why it's a journey. You can't sit there in the ship and look at the adventure ahead and think, yeah, but I don't necessarily have this exactly down or right, and I'm not sure if I pack this or the just start rowing.
George B. Thomas:
Figure it out. Just, anyway.
Liz Moorhead:
I was able to figure out at least what I believe mine to be now by asking myself why three times. Well Yes. Content shouldn't have to suck. Why do you care about that? Well, because there are a lot of really smart people who are hurting right now and can't accomplish what they wanna accomplish.
Liz Moorhead:
Why does that matter? Well, I mean, they're obviously really smart. They have something to do in this world that makes them special. They are genuinely solving real problems not imaginable. Why do you care?
Liz Moorhead:
Right? So often, it's just a matter of stripping a layer, stripping a layer, stripping a layer, and then at some point, you just get to something really simple.
George B. Thomas:
I'm looking something up because I'm pretty sure it is an actual thing that I heard in a book. It's either the 6 or 7. I think it's 6. But what you just did, Liz, you were like, by asking why 3 times. There's, like, this framework of, like, asking yourself why 6 or 7 times to the answer that you give for
Liz Moorhead:
or something like that. I
George B. Thomas:
can't remember. I don't remember. Anyway but here's the thing. Like and if by the way, if you're listening to this so you know, then email me and tell me what it's called. But I've watched somebody do this to somebody, like, not in a bad way.
George B. Thomas:
And about question 5, they usually start crying because they realize that they've gone so deep into a place that they haven't allowed themselves to go before that they're actually mining the true gold of their own humanness in that time? Anyway okay. So which, by the way, it's almost like we're digging in with this 6, 7 whys into, like, the passion. Liz, do you remember when you said I don't know. It was on a podcast episode we were doing where you're like, oh, it's almost like these things are energy.
Liz Moorhead:
You mean, like, 10 minutes ago? Yes. Yeah. I do remember. I happened to be there.
George B. Thomas:
And I said purpose, and I said force. Right? What's funny is passion. Passion is the fuel for your enthusiasm and energy. It's the fire inside that makes you excited to tackle challenges, to create, to learn.
George B. Thomas:
Passion is what makes hard work feel like something you wanna do rather than something you have to do. By the way, if you have not unlocked the I get to versus I have to in your life, it might be because you aren't really connected to something that you're truly passionate about because that little hack becomes easy no matter what you're doing if it's hard because you're like, oh, I get to do this because I'm really passionate about like, picture a chef who's completely obsessed with food. By the way, I have a son who went to school to be a chef. So we're picturing a chef who's completely obsessed with food. They're not just cooking because they need to make a living.
George B. Thomas:
They're doing it because they absolutely love the art of creating something delicious. K? They love the art. In your life, listeners, what is the art that you're creating? What is the art that you love?
George B. Thomas:
What are you baking up in your life that's delicious? They'll spend the chef will spend hours experimenting with new ingredients or perfecting a dish, not because they have to, but because they genuinely are passionate about the craft. The craft. Are you passionate about your craft? The kind of passion that not only drives their success, but also inspires everyone around them.
George B. Thomas:
Inspires everyone around them, whether it's their team in the kitchen or the diners enjoying the meal. Right? Passion matters because it turns effort into excellence. I want you to ask yourself, is the effort that I'm applying coming out the other side as excellence? You see, passion, it keeps you energized.
George B. Thomas:
It keeps you curious. It keeps you creative. And when you're passionate about something, you're willing to go beyond the bare minimum, clock in, clock out, and and you're more willing to strive for greatness, significance versus success. Without passion, it's easy to burn out or lose interest over time, but passion makes the journey enjoyable, not just a destination.
Liz Moorhead:
It reminds me of something I told somebody a long time ago. You know, content, particularly in our industry, and for those who only know us in the beyond your default context, we are marketers. We are in the inbound marketing space. We are all about content and education and all of these different things. And I've given talks about content, which is my specialty area.
Liz Moorhead:
And I talk about the fact that, you know, I had to get likable real quick because my whole job is to give people homework they don't wanna do because when people hear content, they're like, is there some wizard that's gonna do it for me? No. Crap. And they start running. And that's because most people don't wanna know how the sausage gets made when it comes to content.
Liz Moorhead:
They just want the sausage to appear pre made, paste up, ready to go.
George B. Thomas:
Poof. There it is.
Liz Moorhead:
For me, I am passionate about how the sausage gets made. Yes. The craft, what happens behind the curtain. And what you're talking about there is there has to be some level of, you know, where I do my best work is the messy, where it all comes together, this part of the craft. I not only enjoy the process, but I enjoy picking it apart.
Liz Moorhead:
Now to be clear, when you have passion for something, doesn't mean that it always doesn't feel like work. To be clear, it doesn't mean sometimes you find yourself screaming at the same process that other people are screaming at most of the time. It just means that your why, your love, your reason the way you're built. Like, maybe there's just no good reason other than the summary of your experiences, your natural talents, and the skills that you've learned have made you this perfect storm of I am built for this and it is built for me. You don't have to question too deeply about everything, guys.
Liz Moorhead:
But you have to have some level of love affair with the sausage getting made. Otherwise, it's always gonna hurt.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. It's interesting because then you talk about, otherwise, it's gonna hurt. Hey. Listen. No matter what, sometimes it's gonna hurt, but you have to stay persistent.
George B. Thomas:
See, and that's why persistence is in this set of 4 cornerstones. Persistence is your ability to keep going when the going gets tough. It's about resilience. That might be the 3rd time you've heard this word. Right?
George B. Thomas:
It's about grit. It's about determination. I like to say that I've been blessed with being real stubborn and real hard headed exactly when I need to be. Meaning, I am determined to bust through the wall. I have grit to keep on going.
George B. Thomas:
I'll make video to I there there literally was a day. I was like, I'll make video tutorials for HubSpot until I end up on the inbound main stage. Like, I will do it till the day I die. Right? Because it's this resilience.
George B. Thomas:
It's this grit. It's this determination. When you have persistence, setbacks, they don't stop you. Setbacks actually motivate you to find a way forward. It's the refusal to give up on your goals even when they look like they're impossible, even when they get just a little bit hard.
George B. Thomas:
Let's go back to, the entrepreneur world for a second. We'll we'll talk about people who might be, I feel, some of the craziest human beings on the planet. I can say this because I kind of did this. We're gonna take a startup founder. They launch a new product, but in the 1st year, they hit roadblocks.
George B. Thomas:
Go figure. Lack of funding, technical failures, maybe even negative feedback on the thing that they're actually creating, but they, as a human, believe in their vision. So guess what? They persist. They pivot, adjust, and they keep pushing forward until they finally find the right market fit.
George B. Thomas:
Persistence is the reason they didn't give up after the first setback. Persistence is the reason that their startup eventually succeeds. So why does persistence matter? Because it's the key to long term success. I'll put it this way for me.
George B. Thomas:
It's the key to long term significance. Every goal that you set that's worthwhile, it's gonna face challenges. It's just a given. That's life. And without persistence, it's easy to give up when things get difficult.
George B. Thomas:
But when you're persistent, you develop the ability to I hope everybody has their notes ready. When you're persistent, you develop the ability to adapt, to grow, and to overcome. Can you sit here today listening to this podcast and say that you have built yourself into the type of human who can adapt, grow, and overcome? Persistence turns obstacles into learning opportunities, not failures. It makes success possible even when the road is maybe half washed away, 30,000 potholes.
George B. Thomas:
There's an actual big boulder in the way, but you go around it because you're persistent.
Liz Moorhead:
You know what is interesting? You said to be persistent gives you the abilities to adapt, grow, and overcome, and I was thinking about this from a visual perspective. Someone who is persistent recognizes that the ground under your feet is variable. Sometimes you will be uphill. Sometimes it will be downhill.
Liz Moorhead:
Sometimes you will have to climb over things. Sometimes you will have to go around things. And someone who maybe lacks that grit, lacks that persistence, has an unrealistic expectation that their path will be clear even and free from any obstacles. And that's just not how it works.
George B. Thomas:
It's not reality, ladies and gentlemen.
Liz Moorhead:
But on the flip side of that, what is interesting about persistence is that persistence does not have a prerequisite of needing to rest, of being a human being who experiences very human emotions. Go back and listen to our toxic positivity episode. One of the things that we talk about is, like, sometimes stuff sucks and sometimes it's fine to be quote unquote not productive and just say, you know what? We're just gonna let it suck for a minute. We're just gonna have the human experience of disappointment of whatever it is that we're feeling before we pick ourselves back up and keep moving.
Liz Moorhead:
Persistence does not require you to literally be a superhuman, to be immune to the human experience, to be immune to the emotional complexities of the what it means to be a human being. Yeah. It just means that you do not have an expectation that your path will be cleared for you.
George B. Thomas:
Well and see what we have to remember too, and we'll dive a little bit into this, is that persistence is paired with healthy. I want everybody to understand what I just did because it's vitally important with this superhuman framework. The persistence could lead somebody to feel like, oh, you mean I'm a workaholic and I burn myself out? No. Because persistence is paired with healthy.
George B. Thomas:
Persistence is paired with hungry and healthy. Now you have a healthy hustle because you're hungry about the thing that you're passionate about because you love the people that need the thing that you're actually have the purpose for. Oh, anyway.
Liz Moorhead:
I absolutely love that. Again, it is this these are things where the circumstances in which our persistence is tested can sometimes be harder than we expect them to be, but it is easier for us to overcome hard things if we learn how to just sit and move through uncomfortable feelings. It is a genuine superpower.
George B. Thomas:
Without a doubt.
Liz Moorhead:
Keep going. What do we got? Because we got one more, don't we?
George B. Thomas:
No. No. We actually went through those 4.
Liz Moorhead:
But I want it.
George B. Thomas:
I know you want more.
Liz Moorhead:
One up?
George B. Thomas:
No. There's only 4 cornerstones. There's only 4.
Liz Moorhead:
Interesting, George. I was sitting here looking through my notes. And, you know, you're my favorite human, but you're also my favorite lab experiment for what I do. As I was sitting here looking, thinking about how the 4 cornerstones apply to me, and then I immediately went, no. That's that we're not doing that in public.
Liz Moorhead:
So let me think about George instead. You know what I couldn't help but notice? You became the teacher you needed. I there's this
George B. Thomas:
I am one self taught dude. But yes. No. Exactly.
Liz Moorhead:
No. Meaning, you go back to the in a in a contextually relevant way. That story of what happened to you in 9th grade, where you were told you could not amount to anything. You have become what every teacher should be. Someone who not only is self educated and self taught, but somebody who looks across the table and says, I believe in you.
Liz Moorhead:
Because you know how important it is not only to have a teacher who understands the knowledge they need to teach you, but they need to look across the table at you and believe you can do it no matter where you're starting from. And that's who you became.
George B. Thomas:
I'm trying to keep it together, Liz. But, yes, that is who I have built myself into. That is how I wanna show up into to the world. And the interesting little period or exclamation mark I'll put on what you just said is every time I look across the Zoom window, every time I look out into the stage, every time I get on a podcast episode, I feel like I'm looking at me as a 9th grader. And how do I wish somebody would have interacted?
George B. Thomas:
How do I wish somebody would have educated me? How do I wish somebody would have loved on me at that moment in time? And I think this is why, originally, when we were talking before we did the love episode is that that became this core thing of, like, everything is from a place of love, like, a wishing and a giving of love. And so it's just why I'm so passionate about bringing all of this to the world no matter if it's one listener, a 100 listeners, or a 1000000 listeners because sometimes we have people don't believe in us, and sometimes we don't even believe in ourselves, but I wanna be that guy that believes in everybody.
Liz Moorhead:
Well, George, I'm only sitting here a year later the way I am able to have these conversations of myself of, oh, I get to build my life because you believed in me. Last year was the darkest year I think I have ever walked through. And there were mornings where I woke up, and I'm like, it is really hard to believe in me. But I'm like, George is still here, that crazy son
George B. Thomas:
of a bitch. God knows what he's doing. If if he can believe
Liz Moorhead:
in me, I can do it.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes that's all we need. Right? We just need a little, like, it's funny.
George B. Thomas:
I'm gonna be a real old school, old fart. Like, do you remember the commercials? My buddy and me. Like, I just wanna be somebody's buddy. Like, I wanna leave them better than I found them.
George B. Thomas:
I wanna help them get to the next step of where they can take the journey themselves.
Liz Moorhead:
No. It's it's the same thing of why I love what I do. Like, we've talked about whole ass humans and the things that underpin my four cornerstones. Right? My love, my passion, my persistence, all of these different things is because when I look across the table, all I ever see is a whole ass human in a world telling them to stop.
Liz Moorhead:
And often, people really start stepping into their power when they work with me, when they understand I am a permission slip. I am a permission structure. I will tell them if they ever hit the asshole guardrails, and I'll be like, woah. Woah. Hold on.
George B. Thomas:
You officially arrived at douchebag. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
Don't do that. But that's where work gets really exciting because, you know, I spent 40 years, like, being a little human lab experiment trying to be the people pleasing. Well, maybe if I do this, maybe if I contort myself like that. Guys, it doesn't work. We have all these life rules, and it's like, it just it doesn't work.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
But that's why this conversation today, I think, matters so much. Because when you start tapping into these four cornerstones, these conversations suddenly make the decisions that you make across the 10 pillars, how you tap into your humanity, what is your relationship with humor, like all of these different things. It casts everything in a different life. It helps make certain decisions easier. But what I will say, George, going into the end of this discussion, and I say this as someone who does this work literally for a living.
George B. Thomas:
Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
I see how they all work together. Right? This relationship between our 4 cornerstones and these 10 pillars. But it is a lot to keep track of. It is 14 different items.
Liz Moorhead:
Fourteen different items. It's a lot. So how would you suggest someone who feels both inspired by what we've been talking about today, but also overwhelmed by the superhuman framework approach to integrating these elements into their life? Where where's the first step? How do they get their hands on this?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. The first step is just take a breath. Relax for a hot second. Okay? Just take a breath.
George B. Thomas:
But, Liz, I I totally get where you're coming from. When you first look at the superhuman framework with its, again, 10 pillars and the 4 cornerstones, it can definitely seem like a lot to take in inspiring. Like, I have the unfair advantage of, like, I've collected it along the way. You might be sitting here feeling like, where do I start? I'll I'll say this and hopefully this will help.
George B. Thomas:
You do not have to integrate everything all at once. It's not like, great. Now I have to apply all 14 of these things to my life. No. The best way to approach the framework is to see it as a guiding map, not a checklist.
George B. Thomas:
This is not a freaking checklist. It gauges, compass, map, whatever you wanna use, but never ever checklist. You're not expected to live out every pillar and every cornerstone perfectly every single day. Like, that's not the purpose. Instead, Liz and listeners, I want you to think of it as a process.
George B. Thomas:
I want you to think of it as, oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll use the word journey since this is what we pretty much talk about every time we're on the mic. When you focus on one piece at a time and then build from there, if you're feeling both inspired and overwhelmed, my advice is to start by asking yourself a question. Take a breath and ask a question. And the question is, which one of the 4 cornerstones speaks to me right now?
George B. Thomas:
Only you can answer that. But do you feel like you're craving more purpose in your life? Maybe you're already passionate about something, but you're struggling with persistence. Or perhaps you know you need to bring more love into what you do or how you connect with others. You see, by answering that question and by identifying one cornerstone that feels the most relevant to where you are right now, you give yourself a focused starting point with that cornerstone.
George B. Thomas:
Then once you have that anchor, that cornerstone, you can begin layering in 1 or 2. Listen to me for a second. Layer in 1 or 2. I didn't say layer in 10. 1 or 2 of the 10 h's that naturally support that cornerstone.
George B. Thomas:
So let's say purpose is your starting point. You might decide to pair that with a pillar of hungry, keeping that curiosity and drive to learn and grow, and maybe you add health because, let's face it, staying physical and mentally, healthy is key to pursuing any kind of purpose long term. The idea isn't to try to master all 14 elements at once. It's it's about small, meaningful steps. And if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you've heard me say this.
George B. Thomas:
When I say it's about small, meaningful steps, it's because you're living with a philosophy in life of 1% better each and every You're not trying to leap the Grand Canyon, 14 things. You're just taking a step across the room, 1% better each and every day. So pick a cornerstone. Choose a couple of the pillars that align with it and focus on developing those in your daily life. Once you feel comfortable, guess what?
George B. Thomas:
You can build on it and you add more pillars or cornerstones as you go. And, Liz and listeners, here's a simple way to think about it. Imagine I don't know how many of you actually will have to imagine this. Imagine someone who feels really disconnected at work. They're not passionate about what they're doing, and they're struggling with motivation.
George B. Thomas:
Maybe they start with the cornerstone of purpose, which, by the way, I'm cheating because I know a lot people feel like they're stuck in a job, that they're just a job, and they're just clocking in and clocking out. And it affects the teams, and it affects the company culture, and there's 1,000,000,000 of dollars being lost because somebody doesn't feel connected at work. Anyway, so maybe you start with the cornerstone of purpose. You spend time reflecting on what really matters to you and how you can bring more purpose into your job, or you might decide it's time to pivot to something more meaningful. I'm not on this podcast telling you to quit your job.
George B. Thomas:
I'm telling you to think about the conversation we're having and and this example that we're using that you might be connecting with or not connecting with, but it might be time to pivot to something more meaningful. As you or they, if we're using a hypothetical, example here, explore purpose, you can focus on honesty, which is one of the 10 h's, by the way. Because to be truthful with yourself about what's working and what's not might be a key pillar in this conversation that we're having. You see, you can then pair it with health, so honesty and health, to make sure that you're not burning yourself out during the process of trying to decide if where you're at and what you're doing is actually right for your life. By focusing on just a few of these elements at first, they or you, if you're connecting with us, are able to make real progress without feeling overwhelmed.
George B. Thomas:
So how cool is it that these all work together as a modular selections you can choose depending on what part of life you're trying to deal with? But, Liz, I also wanna emphasize that living by the superhuman framework is not about perfection. It's about practice. You're gonna have days where you feel really connected to your passion, your purpose, or health, and then days where things just feel out of sync. I'm I'm here to tell you that that's totally okay.
George B. Thomas:
It's okay. The the goal is to use these elements as tools to guide you through your growth rather than to see them as rigid rules that one must follow. Ultimately, my advice to anyone wanting to use a superhuman framework in their life is to start small, stay curious, and let the framework unfold naturally over time. You don't need to have it all figured out right away. Just focus on what resonates and slowly build from there.
George B. Thomas:
Liz, does that approach help break it down a bit versus it feeling so overwhelming?
Liz Moorhead:
Yeah. It was interesting. As I was sitting here listening to you, I took a couple notes here. And the thing that jumped out at me is, you know, when you want to bake a cake, you don't throw in all the ingredients at once. You don't take every ingredient that is on your ingredient list and just go to town.
Liz Moorhead:
You take time to do your wet ingredients. You take time to do your dry ingredients, then you integrate them at particular intervals. There are things that go in right as you are assembling things for the first time. There are ingredients that only should be brought in once all of your dry and wet ingredients are brought together. There you don't decorate your cake before it goes in the oven.
Liz Moorhead:
In fact, it goes in the oven, and then it needs to sit on a rack and then cool. You are when I think about this structure that you're talking about, again, we have this false notion in our heads often reinforced by a really toxic approach of what it means to have a growth mindset that you have to accomplish everything all at once and that there is a particular blueprint for where you should start. Right? For example, let's pretend we're all climbing up the same mountain, but we may be all starting at different base camps based on what our different experiences are. You know, you may have, like, what you love really unlock.
Liz Moorhead:
Or it may be somewhere else. What I love about the
George B. Thomas:
way you've structured that, George, is that
Liz Moorhead:
what really comes down to is understanding this is we call it a journey not because it's hokey or it's a good bit of imagery for growth minded people. It's because that's what this is. And sometimes in order to understand what your path is, you actually have to just walk it and it will be revealed to you. And in some cases, you actually need to sit there and figure out, okay, wait a minute. There are 5 paths.
Liz Moorhead:
I gotta pick 1. In some cases, you are the architect of your journey. In some cases, you are the journeyman letting it be revealed to you. And it's just this flexibility and fluidity that quite frankly, like, sometimes you're gonna get it right. Sometimes you're gonna get it wrong.
Liz Moorhead:
You don't have to be perfect at this, and that's okay. It's all part of it. George, I wanna throw out there. This is my one thing I want listeners to take away, and then I'd like to hear yours, if you don't mind. Yeah.
Liz Moorhead:
One thing I would like listeners to take away from this episode is that if your actions like, if you've been listening to the pot this podcast for any length of time or maybe you're new to it. Right? We talked about the pillars of the superhuman framework. Like, how we hustle, how we are hungry in our lives, how we demonstrate and show humility. Do we have a healthy relationship with humor?
Liz Moorhead:
Is it something that we use to deflect or potentially wound? You know, what is our level of integrity with ourselves and others? Often, those conversations become more fraught, more confusing, more deluminating rather than illuminating
George B. Thomas:
when
Liz Moorhead:
we haven't had the conversations about, well, why are we here? What do we love doing? And the best part is that unless the answer is kicking puppies or something like that, like your why, there are no wrong answers. You know, what is easy to you is magic to other people, and what you define as magic in your own life, that is entirely up to you. You are the only one who has to wake up in the morning and be fulfilled.
Liz Moorhead:
And your purpose, no matter how small you think it is, is not small. So just remember that the the whole point of this conversation is to help you understand that when you start thinking about what is it that I'm really doing and why, it's because your time and your energy and you are worth it.
George B. Thomas:
I love this that you're I I love that your time and energy are worth it. Immediately, my mind goes to the ripples. The thing is I can't wait to see the ripples that people will see in their own lives based on this massive set of 4 cornerstones, big rocks that we've, dropped on them today. And and, Liz, it's funny because you you you mentioned the cake thing. I gotta be honest with you for one second, side tangent.
George B. Thomas:
I'm more of a cheesecake guy. So if you could use a cheesecake analogy in one of the future episodes, that would be super dope. I'm sure you'll be able to do it. Cheesecake is a cake, so
Liz Moorhead:
we can this will get diverse. You know?
George B. Thomas:
Yeah. It kind of is a cake. Maybe you're right. But here's here's the thing. Whether it's cheesecake or cake, let's be honest, folks, it's yummy.
George B. Thomas:
I would want you to ponder after this episode and be like, is my life delicious? Am I am I doing things the way that they need to be done? I I'm almost gonna challenge the listeners, and it's gonna sound weird, but hopefully, you'll understand what I mean by this. What cake of life are you ready to bake? If today was the starting point based on this conversation, what cake of life are you ready to bake?
George B. Thomas:
As you move forward on your journey towards living a life beyond your default, because that's why we're here, it's literally the name of the podcast, I want you to ask yourself what ingredients are you bringing to the table? Liz mentioned dry ingredients, wet ingredients, but what what are you bringing to the table? What h pillars? What cornerstones? What ingredients are you bringing to this cake of life that you're gonna bake?
George B. Thomas:
What's the recipe for the life you truly wanna create? See, you have to have an understanding and a belief that you can actually create that life. And hopefully, you're getting to that point. But you have to ask the question, what recipe, what cake, what life do I wanna create? Listen, whether it's love, purpose, passion, or persistence, remember this if you don't remember anything else from this episode.
George B. Thomas:
You're the baker, and the life you want is yours to design. So what cake of life are you ready to bake? The journey starts now. One step, one ingredient at a time as you build a life beyond your default.
