Myrto Legaki – Change is where the magic happens.

Siebe Vanderzee: Hello and welcome to our program, 10 Lessons Learned, where we talk to interesting people from all over the world about their interesting experiences and the lessons they have learned. My name is Siebe Van Der Zee and I’m your host. I’m based in Phoenix, Arizona in the beautiful Grand Canyon State.

Our guest today is Myrto Legaki. Myrto is based in Athens, in beautiful Greece, one of my favorite countries. She is a successful leadership and corporate wellbeing consultant, keynote speaker, and the founder of the One Breath Mindfulness Center. She works with major companies and organizations around the world. Empowering leaders, executives, and teams in unlocking their full potential through leadership training that integrates neuroscience, psychology, and mindfulness techniques.

You can learn [00:01:00] more, about Myrto Legaki on our website, 10 Lessons Learned.

Hello Myrto, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?

Myrto Legaki: Hi Siebe, it’s so nice to be with you. I’m very excited for our conversation.

Siebe Vanderzee: It’s wonderful to have a guest from beautiful Athens, a very special city and a very special country, Greece, I noticed that you are, very well known in your business as a leadership and corporate wellbeing consultant.

you also address mindfulness techniques, and I’m just curious, and for our listeners around the world, what is meant with mindfulness techniques? What does that mean?

Myrto Legaki: So basically, mindfulness when it comes to applications of it in the corporate world or leadership programs is a technique that helps us regulate the nervous system with simple and scientifically based exercises. And then manage stress better and [00:02:00] through this process, being able to make better decisions, improve performance and be, more present with everything we do in our lives.

So basically, it cultivates self-awareness. the ability to be present with what happens in our body, what happens in our mind, what happens in our emotions, and also what happens with the people around us. It’s simple exercises, very grounded, so we’re focusing on the breath, or we’re focusing on the body, or the thoughts that are happening in our minds, and it helps us understand and cultivate clarity.

This is self-awareness, based on this information, we can then take a step back, And make a conscious decision about what is happening in front of us, whether that is a decision I need to make about myself, whether it’s a decision that I need to make with my team, whether it’s, how to, let’s say, deal with a problem a solution, anything that comes around.

So, it’s basically, I would say, one of the most valuable tools for performance and leadership And I think it’s underutilized. it’s no [00:03:00] wonder that the, let’s say, most successful CEOs and the top athletes are also using that approach in order to improve their performance.

Siebe Vanderzee: It seems easy for us human beings to get distracted based on internal or external thoughts.

Internal, well, I’m getting hungry. Why am I still in this meeting? or external, oh my gosh, the phone is ringing and I’m on a zoom call. Managing that is, of course, very difficult, and at the same time, it seems like people who are successful and who are, dealing with internal, external distractions, they have found a method how to deal with that, right?

Myrto Legaki: Yes, exactly. It’s a method and it’s a skill that is teachable, so it’s not necessarily something that we are born with. But we can’t cultivate that skill of being more attentive and more focused. So, the attention, our [00:04:00] attention is like a muscle. It can’t be trained exactly in the same way that we train physical muscles.

we train our mind to stay focused on the object of our attention. For longer and longer and be less distracted with something comes along. And, before we started recording, you mentioned a video that I shared, on LinkedIn about, Novak Djokovic, who’s one of the top athletes of our time, with performance that is just absolutely unbelievable.

And he mentions how important it is. To come back to the present moment. So, when you make a mistake, when you lose that point, when you have a failure, what do you do? Our mind tends to wonder and actually tends to stick to what is negative. We know from research that negative emotions, negative occurrences have more stickiness. they attract us more and affect us more physically and mentally. So, our mind goes towards failure. he talks about how important it is to recover from that mind [00:05:00] wandering, to recover from the catastrophic thought about how that one point is going to ruin the whole game.

So, we learn to bring back our attention where we want it to be rather than let it be wandering aimlessly or falling prey to whoever is out there, wanting to take a piece of that attention. the applications out there, our phones, our computers, everything that’s going on around us on a normal average day.

Siebe Vanderzee: Yeah, fascinating. I’m sure in your 10 lessons we’ll address some of those elements as well. I also noticed, Myrto that things haven’t always been easy for you in your life. at the same time, it seems like you have learned important lessons.

Can you explain a little bit more about that?

Myrto Legaki: Well, yes, actually, these circumstances shaped a lot of the lessons that I’m going to share with you today. So basically, 14 years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, I woke up one day and I [00:06:00] lost a hundred percent of my hearing on one side.

That was one of the signs of burnout and it was accompanied by also other diagnosis of autoimmune diseases and my body’s way of telling me that I needed to change something. So, it was a very challenging time. It was a time that actually for me was a new starting point. It was a very low time that helped me find a new way to be in the kind of life I was leading.

So, it’s what helped me see life in a different way and learn from mistakes rather than feel that I’m defeated from them. And it’s, the most difficult thing that I had to, recover from and also the biggest gift.

Siebe Vanderzee: That’s a sentence that I think a lot of people will admire.

It’s tough and you learned from it, and you have been very successful in your career.

Myrto Legaki: Absolutely.

Lesson 1: Own your journey, or someone else will.

Siebe Vanderzee: Well, I think we’re ready. Let’s take a look at, your 10 lessons. Lesson number [00:07:00] one, own your journey or someone else will.

What are your thoughts?

Myrto Legaki: Well, this is something that took me many years. to learn, and this has to do with being conscious drivers of our career and development in terms of our work.

what I see from the leadership courses that I’m teaching is that a lot of us, especially women, tend to not be actively involved in the conscious planning of our career. So, we let things happen to us.

And typically, what happens is for a woman or, men who don’t take the time to plan their careers, we wait for someone to suggest something. We wait for a performance evaluation for our manager to come and say, oh, I see this job opening up and I see that you might be a good candidate.

Would you like that? How would you like to be considered? And then we respond to this outside. proposal, which is a great thing. we can be responsive and let things happen for us. And there’s another way. There’s also a way [00:08:00] of being more conscious about where we want to go with this career.

Where do I want to go with this work? Where do I want to be? Who do I want to be? And how am I going to get there? this took me a long time to learn, and it’s something that if I had known in advance, I would have planned better for it, and this is what I teach. So, being strategically involved into how my career is going to develop.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to turn out the way I want it to, but at least I have a plan, and I can be, co creating. That evolution rather than letting things happen to me. asking for that job, asking for that raise, going to a conference to look at other opportunities, learning about different, positions, different functions, asking for that rotation.

being more actively involved rather than letting things happen to us.

Siebe Vanderzee: yes, I agree. It sounds good, but I can also think of situations where you have family and friends, they want [00:09:00] to look out for you. if you say, I’m going to focus my career on this particular area, they may say, Myrto, I don’t think that’s the right way.

I think you should do this first or try that first. How do you fight that off in a nice way, because these are friends and family members. They want the best for you, but it may not be exactly in line with your thoughts and goals.

Myrto Legaki: Absolutely. This brings me to one of the other lessons I had in mind sharing with you, which is a listen to the voice inside.

So, this is actually, very important. a lot of us have been taught or have come to, listen to other voices more than the voice inside. We have been trained to listen to what is coming from the outside, perhaps even labeling it as more important than what we have to say.

one of the most important things is being able to listen to that voice inside that knows better. this is actually part of the self-awareness that I was talking [00:10:00] about earlier. Self-awareness is being able to hear our own thoughts. Hear our own narrative. So, when I’m sitting here with you and you’re saying what you’re saying, how does that sound for me?

What am I saying? How am I processing this information? And also, what is happening in my body because the body doesn’t lie. So, when we listen to that voice inside, we’re also listening to what happens to our body, and we can make a conscious decision about whether this is in our path or not. So, I would say, yes, listen to the people that love you, especially if you know that they want what’s good for you.

Because sometimes not all voices are, innocent voices, but if you know that these are voices that love you and always going to say what they think that is best for you, listen to them. It’s good to have different opinions but start listening to that tiny little voice inside. And in my experience, and this is what I tell my son, I’ve taught him since he was really young to listen to that voice.

I’ve trained him to tell me what this voice is telling [00:11:00] him. This voice typically starts by whispering. if we don’t listen, then it becomes even quieter, right? So, we have to train ourselves to listen to that whisper, and we have to reinforce, the decisions that we make based on that whisper, so that our relationship with that instinct, gets strengthened rather than diminished over time.

Siebe Vanderzee: And that internal voice, will repeat itself, right? Even if you don’t listen, it will come back at some point to say, didn’t I tell you?

Lesson 2: Seek out the sages.

Siebe Vanderzee: Exactly. Great point. So, it kind of connects to lesson number two, seek out the stages. Are you talking about smart people?

Myrto Legaki: I’m talking about smart people and people that also can be, in the sort of sense, mentor, not necessarily smart, but smart in what they have to offer.

I wouldn’t say smart in the sense of intelligence, but in the sense that they’ve [00:12:00] accumulated wisdom that they can impart with us. because nobody can do it on their own, right? we are social beings, we’re hard wired to be connected, to be together, to learn from each other, to regulate our nervous systems one from another.

So, we are going to be, throwing all that wisdom away if we’re not taking advantage of it in our day to day lives and in our work. one of the 10 lessons would be to look out for these people and actively seek them in their lives.

In your life. So it means having a network, having a network of people that can act as mentors, as allies, as people that you can bounce off ideas from as people that can be a sounding board when let’s say you’re considering the next promotion, or you’re considering a big decision in your career, or even considering how you’re going to deal with the challenge that you have at work.

we need the many voices so that it can help us decide. And co create with our own voice, the step we want to take in the future? it’s [00:13:00] about looking for mentors. It’s about looking for friends and for allies, looking for people that can act as coaches even, and anyone that can impart their wisdom and their kindness with us to help us move along our way.

Siebe Vanderzee: you raise so many issues, that, brings a question to my mind, but I feel sometimes that when I was young teenager, I was much smarter than who I am today. sure, I listened to my parents and other people, but they didn’t know because I was 18, 19 years old. But I knew exactly.

how do you deal with that when people are, resistant to having an open mind and doing things differently?

Myrto Legaki: Well, it’s not easy. Sometimes we need to learn from our mistakes. And I think that comes to one of the other lessons that are important for me.

Sometimes we need to make that mistake. And every person, even the people that I’m coaching, I’m sure we’ve come along that as well. Sometimes we [00:14:00] need to go through that decision and learn that this is not the way for us. and then come back to that voice and say, okay, so I’m adjusting.

I’m adjusting my initial opinion about that, and this is what is better. actually, we tend to learn more from pain than from, success. We are hardwired to avoid pain because pain and failure, had a bigger risk. for example, if we had to eat the red fruit or the green fruit, and nobody knew what the red fruit or green fruit was, and the green fruit was a good fruit, and the red fruit was bad and you died if you ate it, you know, we will remember that the red fruit, is a forbidden one rather than seek out the green one, the cost of the wrong decision is, is, is bigger typically, was bigger typically.

So, we tend to remember when we learn from failures more. I would say that everybody has their own path. not everybody is coachable to the same degree. if we want someone to change, we also have to let them take their own path and let that path [00:15:00] unfold. sometimes that means making the wrong decisions for them, and then come back and adjust.

Lesson 3: Try again, fail again, fail better.

Siebe Vanderzee: It fits very well with lesson number three.

Myrto Legaki: Yes.

Siebe Vanderzee: Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Myrto Legaki: I love this quote. It’s from a Samuel Beckett, play. I think I should have put that as number one, because I think that was the hardest one for me to learn, because I was taught to never make mistakes.

I was brought up to think that I needed to be perfect, or maybe internally, I had that need to be perfect. for me, mistakes were the end of the world. I would never forgive myself if I made a mistake and I would never forgive others for making mistakes. I continued with that mentality, for many, many years.

Actually, I brought that into, my work. when I became a leader, it was one of the challenging parts of my, leadership style that I needed to overcome. So how to accept. failure, how to allow for failure and help my team rise up from that failure from the mistakes in order to [00:16:00] learn.

now I’m the biggest advocate of mistakes. a couple of years ago, we were shopping for the school supplies, you know, for the new year. And then we went to the shop, and I looked at the shelf and there was this huge eraser. It was that big. And it had, the, I love New York logo.

I heart mistakes and it was huge, so I got him this huge eraser, on his desk. I love mistakes and keep telling him the only way you’re going to learn; nobody was born knowing everything. So, you have to fall in order to learn. You have to fall in order to learn. So, it’s about seeing that success, it’s not about not making mistakes, it’s about making mistakes learning from them and not doing them again or even doing them again, but not a third time.

It’s about finding the courage to continue having adjusted your behavior, your emotions, your thought patterns, according to that mistake.

Lesson 4: Your lens shapes your world.

Siebe Vanderzee: Great point. Lesson number four, your lens [00:17:00] shapes your world. I have many questions about that, but I’ll gladly leave it up to you to explain that lesson.

Myrto Legaki: when I started, training for being a mindfulness instructor and bringing mindfulness into leadership courses, I remember we were taught at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Someone told us that once you start developing self-awareness, it’s like you’re wearing Glasses, you see the world in a different light and see things better. it’s about the glasses we’re wearing that are changing the way we see the world.

If I’m going to wear these glasses, I’m going to have a completely different view of the world than if I wear my other glasses or the tinted glasses. It’s essentially the quote that says we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. depending on what lens we’re bringing in our experience, it’s going to change the way we react and the way we deal with that experience.

for example, let’s say I was coaching a team It was a small team, there was a big [00:18:00] presentation that needed to be done to the board, and at some point, the leader of the team got sick, he was going to miss that big presentation.

So they were on Zoom, and he said that one of you is going to do the presentation in front of the board. one of the people said, oh, my God, this is the opportunity I was looking for. I’ve been waiting for that chance.

I’m stressed, it’s hard, but I’m excited for it, you know, so it’s that lens. the other person we were talking about afterwards almost collapsed under the pressure, thought they weren’t ready for it. had never, presented in front of a board before, and thought this was going to be detrimental for them because it would bring out a wrong impression about their skills and capabilities.

So exactly the same situation, but it’s about how you see things, whether you’re going to see it as an opportunity, or you’re going to see it as a threat.

Siebe Vanderzee: I was curious, when I think about your lens shapes, your world, your lesson here and the way you describe it, is it what I see is [00:19:00] what I see or what I see is right.

I see something that’s the right way. And then I would say not necessarily because it’s a perception.

Myrto Legaki: absolutely it’s about being aware that things are not black and white. things are, how we think they are, whether we think they’re right or we think that we are right.

It’s about how we, how aware we are about how we see things and being aware that that bias, because we all have biases, is always there. No matter what decision we make, no matter who we’re talking with, we’re bringing in that lens, and it’s affecting how we see things.

That’s why it’s important to be open to other opinions, to see other views, to have diversity, to be able to see things from other points of view as well, so we don’t become narrow minded.

Siebe Vanderzee: Now, I know that you have lived in multiple countries. you’ve lived in New York, you lived in London, you lived in Vienna.

cultural differences, [00:20:00] people perceive issues differently in different countries. It makes it more challenging or is there a more simplistic way to guide people and say don’t make a quick judgment because allow behaviors or cultures to be different? how do you look at that?

Myrto Legaki: That’s a great example about cultural differences.

I was coaching a team for a multinational company, with 40 different, countries, 30 different nationalities, living in 35 different countries. So, it was really diverse. the most important thing here is awareness. being aware of the diversity of the situation, being aware of the cultural diversity, being aware of the diversity in terms of communication styles, someone from Greece is going to communicate in a much different way than someone from, the US or from, an Asian country,

So, we need to be aware of these differences. awareness, it’s the first step. And then the second step is perhaps learning about these differences and then adjusting our own [00:21:00] lens in order to communicate better based on these differences.

Lesson 5: Always be building bridges.

Myrto Legaki: You used the word bridge. Lesson number five, always be building bridges. That’s a hard one. It was a hard one for me, but it’s really important. It’s about, always putting focus on creating relationships. We are relational beings. We are made to do things together, build things together.

We cannot go very far alone. We all perhaps have learned of that. I’ve heard of that proverb, you know, if you want to go far, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So, it’s about networking. It’s about seeking out people so that we can advance and go where we want to go with our career or with our life.

And I love this quote that says your network is your net worth. I’ve seen it a lot with leaders. The ones that typically are the most successful are also the ones that are well networked and have built solid relationships [00:22:00] throughout their careers.

So, it’s about creating deep networks, but also wide networks. And in our leadership programs, we are teaching ways how to evaluate the quality of this network that we have built for ourselves, and also see our blind spots and difficulties. not everyone, has networking as their second nature, especially we know women that find it a little bit harder than men to network.

So, when we’re teaching women leadership programs, we bring that into attention a lot, There’s a lot of reactions. women will say, networking is so selfish, or I don’t want to use my connections to go ahead in my career, this is detrimental because it keeps women from creating that network they need to go ahead.

Whereas men. tend to see networking as a natural part of doing business, a natural part of being a leader, of being part of an organization. And women want to have friends, whereas men understand that building networks is about a win win situation. We can also [00:23:00] cultivate different strategies or mindsets when it comes to networking.

And I realized that it’s not a nice to have when we’re at work. It’s actually one of the most important parts of our work.

Siebe Vanderzee: there were a number of things in what you just mentioned that, raised questions in my head, and not in a negative way, but in a positive way, because the role of women,

how women are advancing in many countries, not all countries, there is still a long way to go. in certain countries, women have more opportunities and access to opportunities in other countries. It’s still, in a beginning phase, and there are certain countries where at this moment, women do not have a chance, that’s very concerning.

I was also thinking when we talk about building bridges. it has to stay genuine and sincere. when we deal with social media and AI, I get tons of messages from people, I’m sure they’re nice people, but how sincere are they when they reach out to me? Or is there an interest they [00:24:00] have and they want me to help them with their interest.

it’s not about myself, but in general, how we communicate as people. it makes sense to build networks. And at the same time, it has to be genuine.

Myrto Legaki: Absolutely. Successful networking has to do with being authentic and being generous. bringing something into the relationship, not only thinking about connecting with someone to take something from them.

as long as you’re being authentic, and offering something to the relationship, then it’s going to be successful.

Affiliate Break

Siebe Vanderzee: Yeah, I like it. We’re talking today with Myrto Legaki, a successful leadership and corporate wellbeing consultant based in beautiful Athens in Greece, sharing her 10 lessons learned.

I want to thank our affiliate partner Audible. Audible is an amazing way to experience our program. 10 Lessons Learned, but also books and other podcasts, allowing you to build a library of knowledge all in one place. [00:25:00] You can start your free 30-day trial by going to audible trial.com/ten. Lessons Learned.

Lesson 6: Change is where the magic happens.

Siebe Vanderzee: All right, moving on. Change is where the magic happens. Lesson number six.

Myrto Legaki: as humans, we tend to shy away from change and it’s normal. It’s understandable. We want security. We want safety. We do not like the unknown.

Right? We want to stay where we know how things will go, the job we know, the manager we know, the job description we signed up for, the marketing conditions that were there when we first started doing what we do, but it’s as you and I and everyone knows, nothing in life remains the same.

Nothing remains unchanged. In fact, the only constant is changed. And we know that it’s been said, you know, from my ancestors, right? so we never go into the same river twice everything changes all the time. although change is constant, we feel like it’s disruptive.

We feel that it’s a threat [00:26:00] and it’s absolutely normal as we mentioned. But when we understand that only through change. There’s an opportunity that something else might arise that we haven’t even thought about, then we can be perhaps more prepared to deal with it. And this is very hard. So, when I speak with leaders, and when I coach executives, it’s very hard, especially when they haven’t had challenging situations in their career in their life.

and it’s something that we get to learn, and we become more resilient the more we go through changes, and we see that we can overcome them. So, it’s about going through the five stages of change, like Elizabeth Kubler Ross talks about, and being, sure that we’re going to come out of it.

Because sometimes we think that when change happens, we’re going to fall, let’s say, in the middle and never recover from that change. But we need to remember that we’ve done change before in the past, that we’ve achieved successes after that change. We need to remember that sometimes things were better after the change than they were before.

And we [00:27:00] need to also remember that we’re actually great champions of change. Since the moment we were born, we were dealing with change, right? Since we started growing, we learned how to walk, we learned how to talk, we learned new skills. Every single day, actually, it’s an exercise in changing.

So, I think it’s about changing our mindset about what change is and realizing that without change, nothing good would ever happen. Perhaps nothing bad would happen, but nothing good would happen either.

Siebe Vanderzee: I think you’re making a great point, and it goes through my mind how, important change is, even though I don’t know what the next change is going to be, because that’s what change is all about.

I agree that, if you look at human life, it consists of changes constantly and, things can get better because of changes. It’s a discussion maybe for a different time to get into why people are afraid of change. I understand you’re stable, you’re secure, you know what you’re doing and why change?

But, sometimes, you know, when I think [00:28:00] about, how, a little bit over 100 years ago, we would be riding around on a horse and buggy, then we had vehicles, then airplanes. We’re going into space, of course, already. At some point, we’ll have flying cars. Why not? But can you imagine millions of people flying in their cars to go to the grocery store?

I don’t know if that’s what we can expect, but that’s sometimes what change is all about, right? Hard to believe, but to keep an open mind typically works better.

Lesson 7: Celebrate your wins.

Siebe Vanderzee: so great point again, lesson number seven, celebrate your wins. when do you end the celebration?

Myrto Legaki: Hopefully never, you know, in the sense that we can.

Find even the smallest wins and celebrate.

Siebe Vanderzee: depends how you celebrate, right? If it’s party time at some point, okay, enough, let’s go back and focus on what we need to get done.

Myrto Legaki: I’m actually thinking about not necessarily having a party and going out and drinking, but actually sitting and maybe still for a little while and realizing, oh [00:29:00] my God, I’ve achieved that.

Oh my God, I got that. Oh my God, I finished that project. Looking at the list, I don’t know about you, but a lot of the executives I work with, we’re working with, time management or performance management, putting out plans, and we have a lot of lists about what we want to achieve when making our plans the marketing plans or operational plans.

And we have a lot of goals. So, I’m thinking about how often do we sit on a personal level as leaders, as executives, to sit back and say, okay, what have I achieved in the last week, in the last month, in the last quarter, in the last year? Because typically a lot of us, especially if we’re A type professionals, if we’re high performing, you know, very go getters out there, typically what we do is we always focus on the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing,

And typically, that goes along with never being satisfied with what we’ve accomplished. So, it’s about, taking the time and sitting back, perhaps even writing down what we’ve done soaking that up and giving ourselves the appreciation [00:30:00] we deserve. I think first on that level. And then of course, if you want to have a party, it’s great.

But first, soak it up, you know, I did this, I wanted this. and I did this. So, celebrating it. And it was very hard for me to do because I was always chasing the next carrot.

So that brings us to exhaustion. It brings us to burnout. It brings us to lower engagement. It brings us into not finding pleasure in the work that we do, because if we’re good at what we do and we’re achieving things, but we never, celebrate. We never, acknowledge or appreciate, then what do we do it all for?

Siebe Vanderzee: But if I understand you correctly, When you talk about celebrating, it’s more or less, in your own mind or maybe with your team, it doesn’t mean going outside and saying, hey, we got another deal and look at me it’s more to say, okay, I’m making the steps, to reach other goals or this was my goal and I reached it and I need to take a moment in my own mind to celebrate that.

Myrto Legaki: I [00:31:00] love that you bring that up. It’s both. The first one and the most important one is the one that happens with ourselves. the second one, sometimes it’s about being, comfortable enough to speak about our achievements in the workplace. if we don’t speak about the work that we do, it’s not going to speak for itself.

if we don’t speak and someone else to speak, in the same work environment, then never going to get heard. So, it’s about internal, let’s say, acknowledgement, celebration and appreciation, but also external. External could even mean among the team, but also the team within the organization.

Lesson 8: Treat your body like a temple.

Siebe Vanderzee: lesson number eight, treat your body like a temple. Now there are temples in other countries. I know that of course, but I have to think of my visit to Athens. Incredible. But what is the story behind your lesson here?

Myrto Legaki: it’s directly related to my own experience.

for many years, I was working as a management consultant for financial services [00:32:00] institutions. I was then working in marketing strategy for telecoms, in very demanding work environments. I was always looking for the next carrot, never sitting back and actually enjoying and appreciating what I had achieved.

I kept pushing for more, asking my body to deliver more than it was able to do. So that kind of brought me into burnout, that kind of led into burnout, mental health, and physical health issues. So, I had never thought of it that way.

when we’re younger, we feel invincible, right? you work 20-hour days. I was sleeping in the office. There was, no word of being tired. It was just, how much more do you want it? But it was not about not being able to do it.

But this, is not sustainable. What I’m saying here is listening to our body, listening to what our needs are. First, the physical needs of our body. And it might sound trivial, but I’m going to challenge you. How many times have you, been hungry and forgot that you’re thirsty?

How many times have you been exhausted? How many times have you [00:33:00] been sitting on your chair for hours without a break? And still kept on going because you thought something else was more important. of course, there’s emergencies. There’s going to be times when you’re going to have to push through.

Yes, I understand. But if that becomes a status quo, if that becomes your normal, then it becomes an issue in the long run. being self-aware, noticing the physical sensations of our body to understand what our body needs, and then. Being gracious.

and loving enough towards our body to give it what it needs so that we can continue to support us because without this physical body, nothing can happen. No goal, no dream, no achievement, no career, no beautiful life can happen.

Siebe Vanderzee: Yeah. And it’s interesting. you’re talking about your body and taking care of your body.

Lesson 9: Listen to the voice inside.

Siebe Vanderzee: I was thinking also of your soul, but maybe that connects very much to the next lesson, lesson number nine, listen to the voice [00:34:00] inside. I imagine that has to do with your soul and your mindset.

Myrto Legaki: Exactly, it’s about listening to what makes our heart skip. It’s about listening to what is aligned to our values.

It’s about actually knowing our values. A lot of us out there are doing jobs, are into professions, are into industries that not really speak to us. we’re doing a disservice to ourselves, but also to the world out there if we’re not aligned to what is in our heart. Everybody out there has their own talents, their own gifts to bring to the world.

And thankfully, there’s so much out there for all of us. So, it’s about listening to that voice inside that tells us that this is right for me for this moment and being gracious enough to follow that voice. that voice can be the soul, as you’re saying, but it’s much easier for a lot of people to understand the inner voice, rather than the word soul, which is sometimes hard to [00:35:00] describe and pinpoint.

for me, it’s easier to say that voice inside.

Siebe Vanderzee: Yeah, it makes sense. I like it. it’s, so relevant. I deal with a lot of people who are in a career transition. They are in a current job, considering maybe another job. how do they go about it? And of course, that, Inner voice is so important.

I typically like to ask someone who is going through career transition, what position would be ideal, quote unquote, ideal for you. at the same time, I add, a silly old joke. if I think about my own career, I would love to win Wimbledon. But my chances to win Wimbledon are long gone and I never won a tennis match.

you have to be realistic when you set your goals. at the same time, you have to go by what your inner voice tells you. You cannot say, well, they told me I need to do this. They told me I need to do that. That’s not going to be ideal in that situation.

Myrto Legaki: And also, it’s about course correcting.

So, you make a decision, or someone suggests something [00:36:00] and you take a job, you take the next spot and you’re there. And you’re miserable. You’re failing inside. you’re dying inside. Can you listen to that voice that is saying, no, this is not for me. And then make the next step.

Because as I said before, there’s no mistakes. There’s only evolving into the newer version of ourselves. We’re co creating with what’s out there. The new version of ourselves will always becoming someone else. It’s not one thing that we want to become, right? You’ve become many things, Siebe, and I’ve become many things, and I’m becoming, being able to course correct, listen to that voice, and then change, and change again, and change again, and keep changing until hopefully, the last breath that we ever take.

Siebe Vanderzee: It’s very inspiring what you’re saying. I really appreciate it.

Lesson 10: You are enough.

Siebe Vanderzee: And guess what? We have arrived at lesson number 10. It goes quick, right? lesson number 10. You are enough. My question would be, really?

Myrto Legaki: I think that would be the hardest one, yeah. on the one hand we want to achieve so much and on the [00:37:00] other hand we want to feel that we are enough just as we are.

it’s a little bit about not feeling that we need to prove something in order to feel that we are worthy of being who we are, of being worthy of being loved, being worthy of even having the job that we have. You’ve probably heard the imposter syndrome that is out there. It’s a syndrome of feeling that we are not deserving the position that we have at work.

We’re feeling that. someone else is going to, realize any moment that we don’t deserve the job that we have and someone’s going to take it away from us. it’s very real because actually sometimes when I hear it from people that I coach, you hear that. I have felt that many times in my career.

So, it’s more about having that sense that I’m enough. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Maybe I need to improve myself because this is how I’m going to learn. This is how I’m going to evolve, but I don’t need. To prove anything, to be worthy of love, to be worthy [00:38:00] of what I do, to be worthy of being here on this earth and offering what I have to offer to this world.

Siebe Vanderzee: And not being so hard on ourselves, this is for the people that are always seeking for more. this is who I was, never happy with what I’ve achieved. these people tend to burn out more easily because they keep chasing the next thing.

Myrto Legaki: feeling that we’re enough, I don’t need to prove anything. And I want to grow.

Siebe Vanderzee: It’s such an important point to be satisfied with who you are as a person, and at the same time, to have ambition to grow, to expand, to experience new things, different things,

Satisfied with where you are and satisfied at least to have a peaceful mindset, even if you say, okay, but I do have next steps that I want to develop, right?

Myrto Legaki: There’s a difference between needing to prove something and wanting to improve and wanting to evolve. Needing in order to feel that I’m worthy and [00:39:00] wanting in order to develop and share my gifts with the world.

It’s a different mindset altogether.

Siebe Vanderzee: Wow. This is a great conversation. I do have another question for you. in your life, in your career. Are there any lessons you have unlearned where you decided, you know what, I got to change this because It’s not working, or it doesn’t fit anything that comes to mind.

Myrto Legaki: Of course. Well, there’s two things. First is that nobody thinks about you so much. Nobody thinks about me that much, sometimes we worry about whether people think of us too much, but I think everyone is just involved about themselves.

Most of us, and we know that also from research studies, but the default mode network of the brain, when we’re not thinking about anything, most of the times we’re thinking about ourselves. So, nobody’s, nobody’s thinking about you that much. So, I had to unlearn being so worried about what other people are going to think about how I’m going to present, how good I’m going to be in this keynote speech.

Okay. Obviously, this is my job now. it’s the main thing that I do, not [00:40:00] worried so much about what other people are going to think about who I am, what I do, and how good I am at what I do.

Siebe Vanderzee: Yeah, great point. And again, I threw that at you, but what a wonderful answer. I really appreciate it.

I want to thank you for joining us today and for sharing your lessons and your wisdom with our global audience. Much appreciated. You have been listening to our international program, 10 Lessons Learned. This episode is produced by Robert Hossary, and we are supported by the Professional Development Forum.

special thanks to our production team members, Yi Wang, and Cody Comeau. Our guest today is Myrto Legaki from Athens, Greece, sharing her 10 Lessons Learned. to our audience, don’t forget to leave us a review or a comment. You can also email us at podcast at 10lessonslearned. com. That is podcast at number 1010lessonslearned. com. I hope you will subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. And remember, this is a podcast that [00:41:00] makes the world wiser and wiser. Lesson by lesson. Thank you and stay safe.

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