Most of our weekends are a mash of craziness, busy-ness, rushing all over, and everything in between.  While this weekend was not that different, it was great to have a wonderful mix of “alone time” with each of my family and a little much needed actual alone time.

Becky and I got our early morning run in on Saturday.  Dominic and I worked together on cleaning up the soccer fields.  Gavin and I were spending time alone in my workshop.  I had a few hours of creating up in my workshop all alone.  We had several meals as a family out on the deck.  The boys and I had fun playing at the park.  To wrap it up Becky and had a little more alone time as we went for a walk while the boys finished up a movie.

All in all the weekend was exactly what my soul needed.  Not that I was getting stressed or anything, but I can tell that I was getting a little too tightly wound by the chaos of life.  Taking time this weekend with each family member and myself was fantastic, and I’m ready to go for this next week!

Thanks!!!

How easily I allow myself to get so busy that I keep myself from doing the things I should.  Many times I get caught up in the busy-ness of the day and forget to take time to protect my most valuable asset…  my time.

Today I made a point of remembering to take care of that.  Instead of grabbing lunch on the go I brought my hiking clothes, changed in the car, and got some trail time in.  It was amazing and incredibly refreshing!  The time in the sun and fresh air was exactly what my brain and soul needed to get back to business and be productive.

Today reminds me of why I need to remember to stay focused on the things that bring the most reward and say no to the things that don’t fit.  I need this time to be the most productive version of myself that I can be, and I can find ways to make it fit into my day so long as I make it.

Thanks!!!

Most days if you were to check on what I was listening to while I drive you’d hear one of several great books on leadership, business, strategy, behavioral economics, or some great 90’s grunge.  Taking a brief break from more serious stuff I opted to pick up Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run.

Sadly, I let about three decades of my life slip away before getting hooked on Bruce’s music.  If you haven’t ever given it a good listen I’d encourage you to give his Darkness on the Edge of Town album a spin…  You might find that little something you’ve been looking for in your music.  Once it gets in your bones, it just sticks and you can’t get enough of it.

Listening to Bruce read his own life story has been nothing short of mind blowing for me.  While I was intending to get in a more entertaining and relaxing book it’s been a surprise with nuggets of great wisdom in almost every chapter.  There was learning to see that I’m not nuts when I sometimes have the voice in my head that tells me I’m not doing a good job in the middle of a presentation.  The grit that he had in order to create what he wanted to create was unbelievable.  His willingness to be left open and vulnerable in admitting to mistakes he made was enlightening.  The passion that he exudes for his craft is very motivating.  Hearing the imperfection of his life, the way he worked hard to raise himself up, his commitment to excellence, the rigor of his practice, the sacrifices made…  It all adds another level of depth to his songs and pushes me to be better than I am.  As he puts it, he doesn’t have much for natural talent, he’s had to bust his ass to become the success he is.  While I may have been opting for a relaxing book I’ve instead found one that is getting me even more fired up!

While it’s not my normal read, I’m very thankful for having picked this book up.  My appreciation for his music continues to increase and his passion for excellence has helped stoke a fire in me.

Thanks!!!

While I’d really prefer not to get into too much on this one for the sake of professionalism, I am thankful for the times when I need to hold a hard line and I do.

Today one of my teams and I were tested with this.  We had reviewed a situation, went back to our vision and values, and made a decision on a specific course of action.  We knew it wasn’t going to be liked or easily accepted, but it was the right decision.  As we met with our client it went exactly as we expected.  Our client was not happy and may decide to use a competitor instead.  That said, I am thankful that we held the line.

It’s often easy to succumb to emotion in the moment when pushing for something.  It’s difficult to stick to my guns and always want to find a way to get the “AND,” but sometimes, there’s not an “AND” to be found.  In those cases we need to stand firm.  Today I was tested and I held the line… and I am thankful for that.

Thanks!!!

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I may not have been stretched to my limits today, but I was certainly in the state of flow described above.  Not once, but twice!  It was an incredible sense of totally losing my sense of self.  There was no me, just my actions, my work, unleashing me…  and it felt great!

The last time I presented on this topic the little voice in my head was present and got me a little jammed up a couple of times.  This time?  Nope, I booted that little bastard right out of my head and went.  I flipped the switch, imagined the opening chords of Sabotage by the Beastie Boys playing at Volume 11 in my brain and let it go.  The practice was done, time to let loose.  There were a couple of firsts that I totally rolled with (someone signing for someone who was hearing impaired and also having another mic going for Skype), and when I stumbled I didn’t let the voice in, I just switched gears into one of my prepared one liners to get myself back on track.  It was like I was on cruise control and was along for the ride along with everyone else in the room.

Tuesday night with no soccer meant yoga for Becky and I with Nick at Root Down.  His ability to coach and push is incredible.  While my body was being pushed and pushed and pushed I was totally outside of myself.  I was lost in the breathing, lost in an incredible state of flow, and it was amazing.  I’m sure I’ll pay for it when I get up to run tomorrow morning, but tonight it was wonderful.

I assuming that everyone reading this has been in a state of flow like this before.  Time stops, you don’t have time to think, the little voice is gone from your brain.  All there is at that moment is the present, nothing else exists, no worries, no stress, nothing, just release.  What a feeling!  To have had this experience twice in one day is something I am incredibly grateful for…  time to crash! 🙂

Thanks!!!

Tomorrow I’m presenting on Managing Difficult Conversations in Eau Claire.  That means today was all about the practice…

Getting to the office early to get a practice run of the presentation in before work.  Practicing it on the drive to Eau Claire after work.  Knocking it out again in the hotel room.  Getting to the room early check out the set up and give it in the room once before it’s go time…

There’s nothing quite like the rigor of hard good old fashioned perfect practice to make this guy feel great.  Funny how easy it is to avoid, yet how great it feels to do!

Thanks!!!

Isn’t it cool when I get a little stuck on something and then the lightbulb goes off and I realize that I know someone who might have an answer?  This past week that lightbulb has twice been my cousin Chris!

As I’ve been working on my puzzle boxes I’ve started to check out doing one in something other than pine or cedar.  In hopping online I’ve found that it may be a little difficult to find the dimensions I’m looking for in a great looking wood.  Then I got to thinking…  My cousin Chris makes some pretty awesome things out of some pretty gnarly looking wood (see photo):

A quick note on Facebook Messenger and he was pointing me in the direction of a couple of places.  He even offered some up to me which was pretty awesome and appreciated!

A few days later my brain got to thinking and I remembered another beautiful project that he made and it gave me another lightbulb!  What if I used the idea of the block of wood he used for his bowl as the block for one of my puzzle boxes?

Seeing as he had done something similar before I reached out to him again for advice (pretty sure there should be a consulting invoice coming in the mail for me soon!).  Yo cousin Chris!  Any chance you could help with some advice on this:

Sure enough, he had some great advice that I’m pretty sure saved me a lot of heartache!  Had I gone the route I would have without his help I would have been pretty disappointed when everything started to shift out of shape on me.

While I’m especially thankful for all of the helpful advice and woodworking coaching there’s more to the story.  Mixed into his response was an absolutely golden nugget of advice that I’ll be saving amongst my all time favorite quotes… “Try try try. That’s all you can do. If it works you’re a master, if it doesn’t you just learned how to be a master.”  How perfect of an example of growth mindset is that?  Throw in an incredibly well timed dad carpentry joke using the pun of “wood” in place of “would,” and it has been great reconnecting with him over the past few days.

Chris, thanks again for the help, coaching, advice, and wonderful quote!  I appreciate it greatly!!!

Thanks!!!

As a self-admitted shiny syndrome apologist it can be very tough for me to take my time and let things work the way they should.  When waiting for something incredible to happen I have to use every ounce of grit I can muster to stay the course.  In past years it has come back to bite me when I’ve moved on to the next strategy too quickly when the progress wasn’t immediately seen.  The past several months have been very different.

With the help of my team, the Express Leadership Academy, my accountability buddies (past and present), my mentors, my business partners, and a cast of many others I’ve been able to stay the course.  Today was one of those days when I stopped and paused to see just how great of a thing we are building, and how much progress we’ve made.

In reviewing the final activity measures for the quarter (our Lead Measures) we were successful.  Over the past few weeks there was a very big push from my teams to wrap up the last bits of the goal that hadn’t been accomplished.  While we may not have quite hit our Wildly Important Goals (Lag Measures) we saw the dial moving in the right direction every single week for a sustained period of time.  Earlier today we made the very difficult decision to fire a client business, something that is done only after we’ve pursued every other option.  While frustrating that it got to that point, it was incredible to see how easy of a decision it was to make when we reviewed our values and saw how they fell outside of them.  For the first time in my career we took the first steps in firing a second client on the same day when we discovered another situation that was outside of our values.  No hesitation, it was very clear cut.  My managers and I rolled out a new training and development plan today.  It took many hours to determine and will take many more to implement, but it will be well worth it in the end.

As I stop and consider everything that unfolded today I have to pause and give thanks for being able to see steady and consistent progress.  Each of these things have taken a lot of time to get to.  We started clarifying and focusing on our values well over a year ago.  We’ve been working on these goals for over a year.  While it’s been tempting to make many changes to our goals – almost on a weekly basis – we’ve stayed the course with them.  All of the successes I was able to see today were the result of clear and consistent focus on them.  My short attention span often wants to jump to the next improvement, the next iteration, the next shiny thing, but in each of these cases my huge support team mentioned above have helped me keep that in check and stay focused to mission at hand.  It’s incredible to see just how well it’s working.  I am so thankful for everyone who has played a role in helping me stay on course.  Being able to see the steady and consistent progress today was truly overwhelming and I am so proud of what my team has accomplished, day after day after day.

Thanks!!!