The Question That Reveals Your Purpose

In this short talk, Lou shares a powerful question from Master Coach Joe Hudson — a question that can help clarify your true calling. Through his own honest reflection, Lou explores what work feels most aligned with his purpose, why money alone can’t replace meaning, and how to discover the thing you can’t not do.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Lou Redman.

Thank you so much for being here.

If you've asked yourself the question,

Is this what I'm meant to do with my life?

This is for you.

I've been loving watching master coach Joe Hudson work with people online.

Watching Joe coach is like watching Patrick Mahomes scramble for 10 seconds in the pocket to then hit his target 50 yards downfield.

And for those that don't know football,

That's very impressive.

My jaw drops at how Joe pierces to the core of an issue and elicits powerful shifts in minutes.

You can quickly see why he coaches executives at open AI,

Alphabet and Apple.

It's truly mind blowing.

It's like watching the LeBron of life coaches.

Again,

Sport analogy aside,

I was listening to an interview that he did with another coach I admire named Jerry Colonna.

In the conversation,

He discussed the reason people want to become coaches.

And Joe said he had a simple question to decide whether coaching is really for you.

And I am going to ask you this question and whether coaching is your thing or not,

I want you to apply this to whatever your work is.

The question was,

Imagine someone will pay you $100 million to buy your coaching practice,

Or your whatever.

But the only condition is that you can never coach,

Bake,

Teach again.

This question is the best litmus test that I've ever heard to understand the true intentions of our work.

And it was confronting for me.

When I sat with it,

My response was nuanced.

If someone offered me the money,

And the agreement was that I couldn't work one on one with people,

But could still speak like this,

Write,

Share messages,

Honestly,

I might take it.

But if someone offered me the money and said,

I couldn't share my meditations,

I couldn't teach I couldn't speak inspirational messages.

I couldn't speak about topics I was passionate about basically that I couldn't inspire others with my words.

Not even close.

I would say no.

So this question helped highlight what I love most,

Which is this I really do love.

Even though you're hearing this at a different time.

I'm just in this flow recording it and it's so fun.

It's so nourishing and getting the feedback from you that it's inspiring means so much to me.

And don't get me wrong.

I love one on one coaching the relationships,

The deep work,

The texts saying I've noticed some big shifts from our sessions.

These are amazing to receive.

However,

My vision has always been to impact millions of people.

And every hour I spend with one person takes away from that mission.

So the $100 million question helped me further clarify why my work on insight timer has been so rewarding.

For whatever your thing is,

Whether you're a meditation teacher and coach like me,

Or a sales associate at Home Depot,

I encourage you to ask yourself,

If someone paid you $100 million,

But you can never do that thing again,

Would you?

And by the way,

I bet some retired dads might say no on the ladder if they love to spend time helping at Home Depot.

Money is a beautiful resource.

But when it gets in the way of the thing we love most,

Then what's the point?

And by the way,

That is not to say it's wrong to do things for money.

While exploring this topic,

I had the realization that I sometimes have a judgment for people that are doing things just for the money.

But underneath that critique is a belief that doing it for the money is wrong.

And there's so many ways that that's not true.

Doing things for money helps us be responsible adults to meet the needs of our families.

What's more right than that?

For some coaching is more rewarding than accounting.

And so why would I judge someone for coaching and having less pure intention than me?

And so that's kind of a side diatribe on the way that we judge people for why they do what we do.

But nevertheless,

I really want you to use this question as more of a frame for you to get clear on the thing that you can't not do the thing that no amount of money is worth losing that in your life.

I'd love to hear what you come up with.

Please share it in the comments.

And I look forward to connecting with you soon.

And if you are at a stage where you're wondering,

What do I want to do with my life?

What is the work that I would not give up for $100 million?

I have a course called learn to do work you love.

And that's going to give you a great place to start to find that thing that you can't not do.

So go ahead and check it out.

And I hope to connect with you soon.

Reviews

Thank you!! Very helpful. I'm also going to check out your course. I've been trying to figure out my purpose.

That was much more impactful than I would have imagined. So glad I listened. Thank you Lou 🙏🏻💕✨🌴

Brilliant. Thank you for crediting your inspirational source as well.

Thanks, Lou! Sure validates what I do in caring for our grandchildren and what I did as an admin assistant as my career!🤗💖

Excellent!

Thank you, Lou!
So inspiring! This brings instant clarity - and through your exploring the nuances of the question: nuanced clarity.
I live your wotk, passio, and unique combination of deep wisdom & open honesty.
🙏🏽🪷🌅

Oooh, no I woild not give up teaching. The mundane day to day BS that gets in the way of teaching, I'd give up for a lot less money than that. Ha ha. But teaching engineering to the next generation is great fun and I know makes an impact on my students and the future every day.

I haven't listened to any of your meditations in quite a while but they definitely got me through some very rough years of cancer surgeries and a dark hole of recovery. It's wonderful to be able to teach again, and I know it's my purpose and makes a difference every single day. Your class on doing the work you love and the meditations on losing other people's opinions of what you do really helped me hone that mission.

Awesome Question!!! Phew 😮‍💨 thanks for sharing

Wow! What a stop-me-in-my-tracks question! I have some meditating to do on the the 100 millions dollar question. Thank you 🙏