On Friday we have a leadership training for our NextGen Leadership crew at work. One of the agenda items is me giving a short presentation on my experience as a partner. When my cohorts first asked me to do this (the first one) I chuckled as I said yes. This was going to be easy – talking about myself? I’ve got this one covered! As I’ve been working on it I am now doing more of a nervous chuckle. This is way more difficult than I initially thought.

What’s been so interesting in this experience has been taking the time to zoom out over two decades. As I piece together my Express journey it’s almost like someone else experienced all of these events, there’s no way I’ve been with Express long enough to experience them all. From showing up for my first interview in blue jeans to becoming an owner to opening a new office to surviving a pandemic there have been so many experiences, so many lessons learned. While trying to piece them all together and then cut back to the most important I’ve been forcing myself to zoom way out.

What I really noticed today was the ability of time to fly by so quickly if I don’t pause to step back. If I don’t pause to zoom out it will continue to spin out of control so rapidly. By taking a breath and looking back I can stop and see the progress and the true depth of time I’ve let pass by.

At least a few times each week I review my blog posts from each of the past six years. In those posts I have planted mini time capsules for myself. They remind me of just how much life has changed in such a short period of time. I don’t have a system like this for pausing to do the same thing in my professional life. Perhaps I should.

Zooming out has brought me much joy as I see the progress and growth from the past 20+ years, but it reminds me I have so much work to so in order to live intentionally at work as I also strive to do at home. It really helped me see that I’ve got a sizable gap for me to work towards closing, which really just means I’ve got a unique opportunity to learn while helping others find a path through a similar challenge.

Thanks!!!