Month: July 2024

Thankful for a Quote from Marcus Aurelius, Outdoors Family Time, & Morning Stillness

Day 3,212

Growth:

Not sure if this counts as fourth or fifth person šŸ˜‰, but the book Iā€™m reading shared a quote that President Truman had highlighted in his copy of Marcus Aureliusā€™ book, Meditations. It was an insightful thought that Iā€™ve been thinking of often today.

“If it’s not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it…. First, do nothing thoughtlessly or without a purpose. Secondly, see that your acts are directed to a social end.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Appreciation:

Almost an entire day of being outside with family! Reading on the screen porch, riding bike, kayaking, relaxing and talking with my feet in the lake, mini golfing, and playing games around the fire pit. Family time and being out – what a combo!

Presence:

Those quiet moments in the morning drinking a cup of coffee inside a screen porch overlooking the lake while reading a good book and listening to bluejays before the rest of the world wakes up. Such serene moments of stillness!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Giving Myself Grace, Drifting vs Intentionality, & Time on the Water

Day 3,211

Growth:

Remember to give myself a little grace when my body is a little beat up after a big physical event (like last weekā€™s 50k). After marathons I gave myself a week to recover, why would I be surprised my body is a little slow to loosen up after going further.

When I paused to walk during a normally easy run today I reminded myself of the above and enjoyed the sensation of walking.

Appreciation:

There is a difference between living a life in drifting from one minute to the next and a life lived intentionally and with purpose. The past handful of years have helped me realize which I find more beneficial.

So many reminders have recently appeared in my life and have helped me stay closer to the path I desire. Grateful for each of those moments!

Presence:

Laying out in the sun, enjoying time on the water with family, so much outside time. Perfect!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Sleep, a Crazy Week with an Impactful Lesson, & Conversations with Friends Who Get It

Day 3,210

Growth:

Sleep is a wonderful gift we have the ability to give ourselves. Last night and this morning I enjoyed it and got the almost nine hours I needed. So refreshed!

Appreciation:

This week is almost done, woo hoo!!! What a profoundly memorable lesson in not taking on too many challenges in one week. This was a wild one that has me feeling completely zonked out. So much progress, lots of growth, and many positive moments, but also way too rushed. Had I spread this all out over two weeks life would have been more satisfying and productive. Live and learn!

Presence:

Conversations with friends who truly and deeply understand and appreciate the struggles we have in our careers are such catalysts for presence.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Choosing My Mindset, a Purpose Filled Week, & a Moment at the Spillway

Day 3,209

Growth:

Choosing the right mindset

Iā€™ve shared that this week has been a nonstop thrill ride with more twists and turns yet to come. As I was wrapping up my preparation for a presentation this morning I felt a bit overwhelmed. Even with all the preparation I still felt stress from both the presentation itself and all the stuff to follow shortly after with tight deadlines.

Something clicked in my head and I froze. Presenting like this is one of my favorite things to do, why was I stressing and not enjoying it? In that instant Iā€™d realized I had my mindset all wrong. This wasnā€™t work, this was an opportunity to play.

With that mindset everything shifted. I was suddenly in a much better mood and I focused on how much I was going to enjoy the engagement. That shift was exactly what I needed.

Intentionally choose my mindset, donā€™t let stress, busyness, and other factors set it for me.

Appreciation:

Whew, Iā€™ve made it almost to the end of the workweek! This has been a wild one, one I probably packed way more into than I should have. Iā€™m fried, exhausted, and ready to crash for the night, but Iā€™ll do so with a strong sense of accomplishment. So much done, so many positives started, now it is time to breathe for a moment, get a good night of sleep, and execute in the morning!

Presence:

As I drove to the presentation I took a quick detour and drove out to the spillway. I parked the car, turned on some chill music, and just stared at the beautiful Mississippi River Valley. Such peace and calm to be found in a moment.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Reflecting on Differences, Halftime, & Practice

Day 3,208

Growth:

We all are wired slightly differently. The world is such a better place when we:

A) work to develop awareness of how we are different

B) listen to and engage with others actively to better understand how they are different

C) set aside any desire to ā€œhelpā€ them be more like our flavor of different

D) work together to blend our different strengths and weaknesses to become better together.

Appreciation:

So thankful for my work family! We celebrated the first half of the year and started making some progress on strategies to grow in the second half of the year. More importantly, we took time to get to know each other better and built stronger relationships. Throw in some time on the river and it was a wonderful and productive way to spend a work day!

Presence:

Going through a practice run of my presentation this morning was exactly what the doctor ordered. Timing the presentation, tightening up the phrasing, and putting a laser line focus to completion was an engaging way to start my day!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for a Leadership Lesson Through Dominic, Scarcity in Doses, and an Unexpected Pose

Day 3,207

Growth:

Yesterday we helped Dominic plant trees as a part of his ongoing Eagle Scout project. There were many Scouts, parents, and siblings there to help and Dominic’s job quickly changed from planting trees to directing the volunteers. Then the media showed up and he was pulled in another direction, public relations. Throughout there were a couple of times when it was easy to see that he was frustrated with not being able to help to physically plant the trees. Several times I heard parents remind him that it is a part of leadership, changing from “doing” to “directing.” He smiled and understood, but there was still a dissonance between what he felt he should be doing and what he needed to be doing.

What an awesome leadership lesson for him to learn! We can’t do everything ourselves, we do our best work when we work with others. The role of a leader is to help show others the way and support them as they do their work. It is such a difficult change to get used to, but a necessary part of growth as a leader. I’m so thankful for the opportunity he had to learn this yesterday… and for the wonderful reminder it was for me also.

Appreciation:

Sometimes scarcity is a gift. The clarity of a tight deadline (or a couple) can really sharpen the mind to a razor edge. This week is a wild one to be sure! Thankfully I’ve planned ahead, gotten a lot loaded up, have prepped for potential curveballs, and have great people around me. Today was a study in productivity, focusing on only necessary tasks and going fast and furious. Tomorrow will be more of the same and I’ll finally take a deep breath on Thursday.

Here’s to the sensation of a deadline breathing down the back of my neck to help me kick into a higher gear to focus!

Presence:

At yoga this evening Jenn threw us a little curveball. After a very intense, hot, strenuous, and sweat soaked workout she had us pause flat on our backs for a moment.

“Take it in, the sensation of being flat on your back, your entire body relaxing into the mat. Take it in, enjoy it, be present in this moment.”

While the workout itself was kicking my butt and had my attention, I was very much focused on holding the pose or transitioning to the next while quickly swiping the sweat out of my eyes. This pause right in the middle, totally relaxed, was an entirely different type of presence. I was immersed in the sensations of laying relaxed on my back, allowing my breathing to slow back to normal, feeling my heart slip back to its normal resting rate. It was an amazing moment!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Time on the Trail, Passing the Test, & In Tune with My Body After a Long Hike

Day 3,206

Growth:

Even a day after the time spent in the woods on my hike I can still feel the calm and stillness of my experience on the trail. Throughout the days I was transported back to footsteps on the trail, memories of a song I heard and exactly where I was when I listened to it on the trail, and the sights all around me.

The time spent hiking on a trail isn’t just for that moment, it sustains the soul for eternity.

Appreciation:

Our brains are really interesting things. After completing my 50k hike yesterday my perspective of myself felt very much improved today. I felt more successful. I felt as if I was an inch taller, 20 pounds lighter, and had reduced my body fat by four percentage points. I was more confident and happy with myself, my drive, and my grit. Everything felt better.

In reality – almost literally nothing had changed other than taking more steps than normal. I really hadn’t changed much at all. There were likely no measurable differences from yesterday morning before the hike to this morning other than some stiffness and soreness and maybe a little weight loss due to dehydration. Mentally though, everything had changed.

I now KNOW that I can hike 50km (31.07 miles) in one go rather than guessing. I now KNOW that I can grit through the pain and suffering of hiking a crazy long distance in a heat index of a degree below one hundred. I now KNOW that I can keep finding more and more ways to drive a wedge between what my mind thinks is possible and what my body is actually capable of.

Yesterday I tested myself. I passed. That fact has made all the difference today.

Presence:

I’ve been very in tune with my body today. After the beating I gave it yesterday I was very nervous about getting out of bed this morning, and rightfully so. My first few steps were brutal, my feet felt like they’d been broken. My muscles were all stiff and my joints were taking some time to loosen up too. In taking those first few steps I was surprised at how I noticed each and every muscle group involved in hiking!

Throughout the day everything started to knock the rust out. I caught myself taking steps without soreness in my feet. My legs started moving fluidly. The short walk we took Leia on really felt wonderful. By the end of the day I’d spent a lot of time on my feet and had helped Dominic and the Scouts plant a bunch of trees – AND – I was feeling great!

All day long I’ve been very cognizant of the sensations of my body, so much more intentional focus on what I am feeling and where specifically. What a gift to be so much more present today!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Rest, Writing Down Goals, and So Many Moments On the Trail

Day 3,205

Growth:

Sometimes the best thing to do is lay flat on our backs in the shade, put our feet up on a big tree, and rest. After eight hours of hiking in the heat and sun I did just that for just under 10 minutes and it made all the difference in helping me finish my goal.

Appreciation:

Today I knocked out a version of a dream Iā€™ve had on my dream list for 15 years, finishing a 50k (31.07 miles). Initially the dream was to run my first ultra marathon (anything over 26.2 miles), but over time it has morphed to hiking the distance in a single go. Today I can cross that one off the list!

What Iā€™m most thankful for today is that I wrote the goal down in the first place. Many ideas fly in and out of my head, some find purchase. When they are written down they are so much more likely to happen, even if they end up being slightly modified like this one. By writing the dreams down the odds of future success skyrocket as they stay more top of mind.

Presence:

I saw and heard so many things on the nine plus hours on the trail today! From a herd of deer (including a few fawns), to an owl screeching, to a couple of sandhill cranes walking just ahead of me on the trail, to watching a woodchuck climb a tree, to hundreds of leopard frogs, to so many beautiful flowers in the marsh, there were sights to behold all around me. Nothing quite like time in nature!

Such an exquisite pre sunrise moment in the marsh!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for a Quote on Subtraction, Exquisite Questions, & an Insightful Speaker

Day 3,204

Growth:

“Maybe the journey isn’t about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

Paulo Coelho

This quote really caught my attention today. So often I think of the journey as growth through adding, but quite often the journey is actually meant to provide growth through reduction. Most of my career has been an ongoing tide towards growth, adding offices, adding service lines, adding for the sake of adding to attempt to placate my ego. What if the growth I really need, the journey I need to take, is to distill it all, to really extract the essence by eliminating the chaff?

Appreciation:

There was an interesting question asked of us today.

ā€œIf your life was a book, what is the title of the current chapter ?ā€

My brain wrestled with that for a few minutes before settling upon an answer (Awareness of Intentionality).

A simply and succinctly worded question with profoundly deep undertones is a thing of exquisite beauty.

Presence:

Nothing like a ninety minute presentation that flies by in a blink and leaves you with pages and pages of notes and ideas! Our speaker today was gritty, raw, ruthlessly honest, inspiring, motivating, and insightful. My mind is still spinning as I take in all that was said and covered. Amazing!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for a Favorite Quote, Pausing to Appreciate the Past Year, & Connection without Distraction

Day 3,203

Growth:

This came up in one of my old notes today, and though Iā€™ve blogged about it before it bears repeating.

Greatness isnā€™t for the chosen few. Greatness is for those who persistently and consistently choose.

Joshua Medcalf

Amen to that statement on so many levels!

Appreciation:

After a handful of conversations about family, parenting, vacations, and life I took a moment to scroll through my photos of the past year.

I hope I have many more years in front of me, no question. If this were to be my final one this has been a year I would be proud to have as my last. What a blessing and gift the past 12 months have been. I am beyond grateful for so many wonderful, fulfilling, and purpose filled memories and moments shared.

Presence:

Taking time for one on one conversations without the distraction of a screen, a device, a phone, email, or thoughts outside of the present momentā€¦ how rewarding those conversations are! Moments of connection, listening, understanding. Moments of what humanity is all about.

Thanks!!!