First things first…  this pick is certainly not from today, but it’s one that made me smile and think of our time together today.

Our Winona office is adding a new teammate next week and we’re getting the office moved around to prep for her arrival.  One of the steps in doing that is installing a new cubicle into our office.  Last time around we hired someone to build them as there were five being installed at once.  This time I thought we’d do it ourselves as there is only one.

My dad and I used to work on projects and I would have so much fun just shooting the bull with him while we worked.  Sometimes we just focused on the project and I learned new skills.  Almost every time he’d thank me afterwards and say what a help it was having me there.  He often commented on how much faster it went when there was an extra set of hands to help him out.

With some of those memories in mind I talked with the boys and they were willing to help me out in putting it together.  While we didn’t get it all done we did make some pretty serious headway…  and had a lot of fun doing it.  I really enjoyed helping the boys learn some new skills.  It was pretty cool seeing how well they were able to do some parts of it completely on their own.  At one point each of us had a separate small project we were working on and it went great.

We were productive together, learned together, had fun together, and made some memories together.  Heck, we were even smiling while we cleaned up together afterwards!

My old man was right, it was so much nicer having an extra set of hands (or two).  That said, I’m most thankful for an excuse to have some great time with my boys working on a project together.

Thanks!!!

I’ve been pumped to watch this movie since I’d first heard of it.  Tonight we watched it as a family and it was pretty wild!

The stunning beauty of El Capitan and the surrounding Yosemite Park was breathtaking and may have helped it move further up the future vacation list.  I have no idea how they were able to capture all of the angles they did, but it was truly beautiful to watch.

Along with majestic beauty of the 3,000′ wall of granite the story of the climber left me deep in thought.  It was an interesting mix of seeing how much grit was required to reach a crazy huge dream.  There was an odd balance of where do we truly LIVE – the place where we feel safe and secure, the place where we’re always straining and pushing beyond the lines of what we initially felt is possible, or a delicate balance of both?  Additionally I caught myself wondering if at some point I should realize I may be chasing the wrong dream or maybe I’m chasing something that I should look internally to find instead of looking outwardly for.  Throw in a handful of other deep thoughts and there was very rarely a moment in the movie in which the gears of my brain weren’t hurtling at full speed down the tracks.

Long story short, this is definitely one that I’ll come back to often…  probably while on a treadmill.  There’s just so much to thing about and take in, so much to watch and then turn to inner reflection.  I’m still amazed that this movie had that big of an impact.

Thanks!!!

There’s really not too much to cover in today’s blog, it’s pretty straightforward.  Sometimes there’s just nothing like snuggling with my dog on the couch.

Thanks!!!

A few weeks ago I wrote about missing my car… Today I got it back and I was smiling from ear to ear as I peeled out of the body shop parking lot. It felt wonderful to be back in the saddle of my car again.

Here’s the funny thing. The luxury vehicle I’m referring to is a 2012 Chevy Cruze with over 175,000 miles on it. By most people’s standards it is far from a luxury car. That said, it felt magnificent driving it today as the car Ive been driving was definitely not a sweet ride.

I’m fascinated by how perspective really changes things. When I’ve gone to a movie with low expectations I’m often happily surprised by the movie. Just a month ago I was getting frustrated with my car and was wanting something different. After seeing what I could have on the other side of the equation I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got. Same car, the only thing different is my perspective. I’m now in a position in which I appreciate my car (& its heated seats, USB port, and bluetooth).

It will be interesting to see how long I can go back to my memory of driving off the lot today to remember how much I appreciate this car when I want a change. At some point I know that I’ll need to, but I’m pretty sure that as long as I can remember to appreciate what I have in my car I’ll be smiling.

Thanks!!!

Over the past few days I’ve had time to reflect on a handful of thoughts from our Express International Leadership Conference. Throughout the event there were many moments in which I was able to learn from others, share knowledge with others, and celebrate with everyone. As I’ve spent time thinking about those many great conversations there’s a common theme that I’d kept coming back to, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

In preparation for our annual Suer Saturday I came across a reminder of a video of Inky Johnson we used last year. Long story short, Inky was a projected first round draft pick who was injured in one of the last games of his senior season. The injury almost killed him and left one of his arms paralyzed. The essence of the quick video I watched was that of Inky discussing how if he knew how things would work out he wouldn’t change anything.

The video helped me link up what I’d been trying to connect in my head for the past few days. All of the mistakes I’ve made helped get me to where I am. Sure, mistakes suck and in moment feel awful, but as long as I can remember to learn from them and not make them again they are a very positive thing. They help create me, adjust my direction, and and help lead me to success.

Many of the conversations this weekend included one version or another of the same phrase… “boy did I ever learn the hard way that doesn’t work, so then I tried this…”. I was on both the receiving and giving end of this phrase many times. In this phrase I found something that I’ll remember to be thankful for in the moment more often.

I will not fail because of my mistakes. I will be successful because I try new things and learn from my mistakes. In the face of each mistake I will remember to forgive myself, learn, and move forward stronger and armed with more knowledge of how to be successful.

When I pause and think of all of the mistakes that led to our successes this year I can’t help but smile. In several cases I felt ready to throw in the towel and quit, but I didn’t. I learned from the mistakes and found ways to improve. Behind the smiles on in our awards pictures are many mistakes that were made, learned from and that provided more strength and determination to lead to the success.

It’s frustrating when I make a mistake, but I’m thankful for each of them.

Thanks!!!

Special thanks to Travis, one of the Onalaska YMCA cycling coaches, for setting up a Monday cycling class! We took advantage of the opportunity and went to his class with Gavin while Dominic lifted weights.

Travis has quickly become one of our favorite instructors as he continues to find new ways to punish us in his class. 😉 Seriously, he makes it way more fun than it should be to burn over 850 calories in 45 minutes.

Today’s class was outside of the norm, he had us take a fitness test which involves biking at a certain power level for four minutes and then increase the power level for another four minutes and so on… until you’re unable to reach and continue the power level you’re at.

At first I was feeling great and thought I might set a new world record. Nothing could stop me and I felt invincible. After a while I started to breathe hard, and then for some reason the weight of my legs increased exponentially. Shortly thereafter my legs stopped working and I just wanted to fall over and take a nap.

It was incredibly exhausting and a way better workout than I was expecting! At the end I was pumped to see that I’ve already moved the dial since Becky and I first started cycling class. Can’t wait to get outside on a real bike and see how awesome it feels!

That said, I’m typing this while laying flat on my back in bed trying to find the motivation to get up and take a shower… hmm… maybe I’ll just stay here and close my eyes for a few… zzz… zzz…

Thanks!!!

When my alarm went off a few minutes before 3am this morning I was actually smiling. How crazy is that? I literally jumped out of bed with a smile and was up and moving as fast as I could be. To be clear, I didn’t go to bed early or anything, I finally hit the bed about 11:30 last night.

So why was I so excited to wake up with minimal sleep even though I function best on 7-9 hours? This…

Last year I was so pumped when I hopped online to book my flight and found an option that was perfect for me. Yup, I found a flight that got me back in my house at 10am – woo hoo!!!

Yeah, waking up that early wasn’t ideal, but fortunately I’ve been working on taking naps in small gaps of time. Using some of these tricks I was able to sleep in the gate in Dallas, on my flight from Dallas to Chicago, and again on my flight from Chicago to La Crosse. Sure, it wasn’t a full night of sleep or super peaceful, but the trade off was well worth it.

So why did I get so pumped to fly out so early? After being away for almost a week I was able to spend almost an entire day with Becky and the boys! I was able to catch up with them, hear about their scout camp, have a couple of family meals together, go to yoga, and now watch a movie as a family. I even really enjoyed grocery shopping with Becky. It’s crazy, but I throughly enjoyed doing a normal chore / errand that I was able to do specifically because I was able to catch an early flight home. Time with the family has been great today!

I’ll happily sacrifice some sleep and chill time to spend more time with my family and I’m thankful I found an early flight to make that happen.

Thanks!!

I’m the first handful of hours today there’s been a few moments when there must’ve been someone cutting some onions nearby. Weirdest thing, but that’s what obviously what was happening in our conference center as my eyes started watering a couple of times today. Crazy, but it only happened for a couple of moments and then we were never served food with onions… Strange, huh?

It started with the award for the Employee of the Year. The top five candidates of the 550,000 associates we employed this year were introduced and it was electric! One of the back stories involved an associate who was homeless and struggling to get a job so he could get custody of his son. When he came out on stage he had his young son with him and it was amazing! That was the first time someone started cutting onions.

After the winner was announced and given the $5,000 prize our founders announced that each of the five finalist would each receive $5,000 and just like that some onion ninja went to town.

Our speaker later was playing a video while he painted some street art. The video had the song “Coming Home” by Skylar Grey playing and showed videos of soldiers coming home and surprising their family members. Yup, you guessed it, someone started cutting onions again.

The last one got me right in the feels. I was sitting next to my friend Mark at the general session and as it wrapped up he gave me a compliment, actually two, that left me humbled, grateful, and full of joy. I’m not sure why, but someone decided to start cutting onions again at that point.

Each of those moments struck me profoundly and I’m so thankful for each of them. They are amongst the greatest moments of my ILC this year.

Thanks!!!

There were so many insightful nuggets of information I received from so many of my Express cohorts today.  Throughout the day I was able to spend much time listening and learning from some of the best franchisees within the Express family.  Some of these conversations came through specific training times and classes while others came in the moments of conversation in between training sessions. 

Our industry is a little different than many others.  In spending time with my cohorts like this it’s like time with close friends who’ve known you forever.  They understand what we do daily and understand the daily struggles and successes.  They are able to share stories of success and failure openly as we all attempt to get help each other improve.  In some situations we may have tried different solutions to the same issues and we can trade notes of how it worked out.  There were even times when someone pointed out potential challenges before they’ve ever occurred.

Spending this time together has been so helpful, just as it has been in the past.  I’m so thankful to have this framework to work within to help us all continually improve.

Thanks!!!