On Purpose With Purpose: Discovering How to Live Your Best Life

By John Ramstead

In these turbulent and uncertain times, On Purpose With Purpose is the step-by-step guide leaders need to unlock their true potential and adapt for the future, so that they can lead themselves and their team to incredible breakthroughs of their own.

On Purpose With Purpose is not the typical leadership book. With exciting combat and training stories from his F-14 to heart-wrenching examples from his near-fatal accident and recovery, John Ramstead equips readers with invaluable life tools that don’t feel like lessons. Most books in this genre focus on the “what” and the “how” of leadership; but John’s experiences as a Fortune 500 manager, serial entrepreneur, and executive coach taught him that the critical missing component in achieving everything leaders dream of is WHO they are at their core…then the rest will fall into place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781631952579

John Ramstead

John Ramstead loves combining his experience as a Navy combat fighter pilot, Fortune 500 manager, and serial entrepreneur with his passion for helping leaders and their team reach their full potential…all while incorporating the very valuable lessons he learned from surviving a near-fatal horseback riding accident in 2011. Recovering from a severe traumatic brain injury--that required 23 surgeries and put him under hospital care for almost two years—radically transformed John’s thinking and forced him to connect with who he was meant to be. He learned how to create his best life and is excited to help others do the same. John currently resides in Highlands Ranch, CO.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

You want to live a life fully alive.

Leaders—young, old, and in between—share with me all the time that they want to live full lives, work in their strengths, and have meaningful relationships. Their desire goes beyond happiness; they want to know their purpose and feel joy. The problem is they don’t know how to get there. It’s frustrating. I understand because I’ve been there too.

You might be standing in a bookstore right now, trying to decide if you should buy a book like this. On Purpose With Purpose is about one important truth: Who you are—your best self—is the key to unlocking your purpose and your potential. You must take steps to realize and prioritize the worthwhile aspects of your life and have a daily plan for how to move forward. This is how you will create for yourself a life truly and fully alive.

I love stories. In this book, I’ll be sharing my favorites to illustrate the principles I believe will propel you forward. There are exciting stories from my F-14 cockpit. There are astounding stories from an accident I should not have survived. There are funny, embarrassing, and sad stories, and some that might challenge you. Each one is here on purpose, for a purpose: to help you move toward the best version of yourself and the truth that, in life, you are the one in control. You need to create a flight plan for your life. In fact, flight planning is so important, I have included a checklist at the end of every chapter for you to work through and share with your wingman! When you understand how to become the best version of yourself, identify a worthwhile goal or dream, and know how to make corrections, that truth will set you free.

Understanding you are the pilot in control of your life is so vital. You have to grab the control stick and throttle with both hands. You also have to identify what might be slowing you down, standing in your way, or stopping you—such as limiting beliefs, mindset, and habits that are not helping you move forward.

Why?

Because it’s impossible to go somewhere new, to become someone new, without first acknowledging where you are now. The self-awareness that comes from digging into what you’ve come to believe about yourself is invaluable. Have you ever felt like you’re at the whim of life’s circumstances—you’re not worthy of an extraordinary life, or you’re too busy to make the changes needed to move toward a worthwhile dream or goal? These are all lies we tell ourselves. They come from the world we live in and how we grew up. Our self-talk, social media, TV, movies, and social media reinforce these lies. These lies can be devastating. Because we rarely hear our own voice due to the noise and pressure in the world, we don’t take the time to slow down to get to the truth. It might not make sense now but slowing down will accelerate your life.

Early in my career, I was completely driven by the expectations of others. They shaped what and how I lived and worked, as well as why. How I showed up was driven by whom they expected me to be, not my authentic self. My definition of success was not my own. I constantly strove to meet a bar as defined by others, but I failed over and over again. I knew only one solution: Work harder and harder. This growing gap between who I was and who I wanted to be led to frustration, burnout, and depression. Every day felt like a marathon I had to complete. On my journey, I have struggled to see myself as an entrepreneur. My marriage has had big ups and downs. I had a low self-image and compensated that with bravado, which hurt relationships along the way.

In this book, I have tried to be totally real about where I have come from, who I am today, and how I got here. Many of us work very hard to maintain a shiny public persona and want to make the hard work look easy from the outside. That the results are effortless is because of our talent and skill. That was how I operated, and it was a lie. When I get to talk to people in person, I always share living life has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done and also the most rewarding. It’s all about finding mentors to figure out how to do the right things the right way at the right time. It’s about surrounding yourself with incredible people to encourage, push, and coach you. There are people in my life who have seen more in me than I saw in myself at the time. They believed in me until I believed in myself more. They saw me as someone who was a fighter, who was courageous, who could achieve those big goals in life. In the beginning, when I didn’t believe in myself, I had a choice to make. I had to choose to believe what they saw in me. That’s what I share with people when they reach out. They can rewrite the script of their lives, make different choices, learn to think differently, and get different results.

My life has not been a straight path by any stretch of the imagination. There have been days when I was frustrated beyond description and angry with myself for failing yet again. As you move forward, there will be days when you feel it is not worth the effort. But here’s what I have found: Stick with it. You will find joy on the path to a new destination that will light up your life.

I hope to be a catalyst in the life of others, to equip and inspire them to achieve what they are capable of. This drives everything I do today: letting people know that every day is a second chance for each of us. I get to do this through leadership coaching, speaking, training, and writing. As I have worked with thousands of leaders across North America, Europe, and Africa, my biggest joy is to see each person move forward into life fully alive.

If you’re wondering what role faith has in all this, it is extremely important to me. As a Christian, I believe with all my heart that God loves us unconditionally. I was able to experience His full presence and love during and after my accident. That moment changed my life forever. It also gave me the knowledge that all of us are loved deeply, and God uses all circumstances in our lives to work together for good. I see incredible greatness exists in each of us, regardless of our background, experience, or beliefs. Settling for mediocrity is a choice, because if you could see what God sees when He looks at you, the view would knock you alive! There is more to life than you are experiencing now. I share this with everyone I speak to and with everyone who reaches out to me. It might be tough to hear you’re more than you’ve become. The incredible truth is you are completely in control of what you do with that knowledge.

I am not an expert or guru. I see myself more as a Sherpa on Mount Everest. I’m just a few steps ahead of others, and I have been fortunate to learn from others who are a few steps ahead of me. In this book, I share with you exactly what I have learned along the way: how I was able to pick up the pieces and reassemble them in a way that created a whole new life—a life I could only dream about as I lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling.

Hope is a powerful force in the world; hope that tomorrow can be better than today, and next year can be better than last year. My goal is to give you hope, show you a path forward, and help you create a personal action plan so, each day, you know exactly what you need to do to live a life fully alive, a life on purpose, with