LET’S MAKE SOME JAZZ

Last week I spent some time in New York. For all of its frenetic energy - the traffic, the pace, the cab rides, the noise - it has always been a city that calms me down. There is something about New York that brings me some peace. It’s as if the cells in my body know I am home. It’s as if they know they were born just across the Brooklyn Bridge. Either way, being in the city is very similar to being in the woods for me. Both give me time to think.

RUNNING in PLACE

You have to connect with purpose to get through the running in place.

A LIFE WORTH LIVING

There is so much advice in self help books, from podcast hosts, in blogs, and now even on social media around how to create a “life worth living”. It has definitely been a catchphrase for the past few years, and I had almost subconsciously adopted it into my language and found myself saying it on more than one occasion.

BUT FIRST, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE

This week I was flipping through some old photographs. No, not swiping through photographs, but actually flipping through some old photographs that I had in a cabinet under my bookshelf.

WE ARE AT THE STARTING LINE

I’m just over three months away from running the New York City Marathon. This month I’ve added in some endurance runs to go along with my interval training as I prepare. An endurance run should be about two times as long as your typical run. I’ve been getting out for 10-12 miles early in the morning on Sunday to begin to build up my endurance. After all, I’m going to have to stretch that to 26.2 miles by race day. At first I started to really feel some pain at mile 8 or 9. Then it didn’t start until mile 10 or 11. This morning it didn’t start until I hit mile 12 or 13. Im building that endurance.

YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY

There is incredible potential in every single one of us. By definition, potential simply means “having capacity to become something in the future.” So what are we becoming?  Are we proving that definition accurate? 

A BALLOON AND A POLAR BEAR

Today’s blog post is brought to you by the word “appreciation”. 

THE POWER OF POTENTIAL

We all have potential. Too often we find ourselves comparing our judging our own potential on our present instead of our future. We look at ourselves and where we are right now. We compare our present situation to that of others in their present situation. We feel behind.

WINNING AT ALL COSTS

There’s an exhausting undercurrent in the world that flows through business and entrepreneurialism. It is a mindset of winning at all costs. It is easy to adopt this - after all you are a driven human being. You set goals. You knock them down. You are willing to make sacrifices for what matters to you.

THAT WAS NO ACCIDENT

There are no accidents. And yet, too often we like to explain life that way. For better or worse. We use “accident” or “luck” to explain away our wins and push away our losses. We don’t take credit for what we’ve created, and we don’t take ownership of our mistakes.

OWN IT AND APOLOGIZE

“I have made a lot of mistakes…but this one has been the most painful.”

“I am truly sorry and committed to rebuilding your trust.”

“We made a mistake … and what is important now is that we fix it.”

IN A WORLD OF CHANGE - HUMANS NEED NOT COMPLY

Sure the world has changed, but humans need not change with it. We may not all live out on acreage. Most of us may have moved closer to town, and closer to work, and closer to schools, and closer to amenities. Yet in moving closer, the underlying sense in all of the comments is that we actually moved further away - from each other. 

THE DARK SIDE OF COMPETITION

This week I got back on the wagon. Well, more accurately, back on the bike.

LESSONS LEARNED WHILE TRAPPED ON AN ISLAND

Every day I woke up and they were in control. It’s how I like it when on vacation. Vacation is for my family. In a world where I find myself being asked to make decisions almost every day, I love the opportunity to go an entire week without needing to have an opinion or make a decision.

IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP… AND THE BOTTOM.

There's a commonly used expression which has turned into a commonly held belief that “it is lonely at the top.” Some use that to indicate that as you grow and build and achieve, you will find yourself in a class of your own…  But that thinking is limited and flawed.

YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL THAN YOU THINK

Ultimately, we allow a day to decide how we feel. We allow a day to decide that we will spend time with family and loved ones.  We allow a day to motivate us to let other people know how we feel about them through phone calls, messages, texts, and emails.

OUR LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SPREADSHEETS

Over the past few weeks, we have been working on business planning for 2022, building budgets across all of our companies, and pouring over proforma’s.  Needless to say, I’ve spent a few too many hours staring at Excel spreadsheets, figuring out formulas, and correcting those formulas.  In most cases, I was able to get the spreadsheet cells to do what I wanted them to do. The spreadsheet definitely serves a purpose, but it also made me grateful to be able to work with people every day as well. My frustration with that spreadsheet led to a valuable leadership lesson.

“VALID ID & REGISTRATION PLEASE”

While driving I was recently pulled over by a police offer. Now don’t ask any  questions because that is not the point of this post, but no, I didn’t get a ticket. The officer asked me for a valid ID and registration. As opposed to my “invalid” ID that I usually carry around? As he brought back my license I couldn’t help but think about the word “valid”.

WORK IS WORK

If we are willing to work hard in one area of our life, chances are, we are willing to work hard in all areas. Studies show that hard workers in the classroom end up working hard on the field, working hard at the office, working hard at home, working hard on themselves, working hard on their relationships.  

TAKE OUT YOUR SKETCHBOOK

My youngest has always loved art, but she started drawing in earnest about a month ago in a brand new sketchbook… This week she brought it to me, proud and excited to show me that she had filled every page of that book in just two weeks. She flipped through it with me page by page.