A mentor once told me to pay attention to speakers for ways to improve my presentation skills. Look beyond what they are saying, look to the tools they utilize, the patterns they follow, the habits they use. Very helpful advice!
Appreciation:
Dinner with friends is always s wonderful time. Even when my task list is huge and I’m tired there is so much to be gained. Friendship, shared memories, and a broader outlook.
Presence:
Spending time with Dominic and the other Scouts helping on his Eagle project was awesome today! Interacting with then all, observing Dominic’s leadership skills, and doing hands on work? Perfect combo!
It is always easy to say yes to way more than I should. It takes grace and wisdom to say no. I really need to focus on the latter.
Appreciation:
One of my favorite activities through our church was “adopting” a college student. We’d have them over for diner once in a while to help the feel at home and to get a good meal outside of their dorm or apartment. What’s fun now is that we are basically doing that again, but with our niece and her boyfriend. Spending time with them over supper at our house is always a lot of fun and greatly appreciated.
Presence:
We made the mistake of going grocery shopping this afternoon. Gotta love grocery shopping on a Saturday afternoon on a cold and cloudy day. The aisles were packed with people and carts virtually everywhere. It took all of my focus to stay calm and breathe deeply. I saw it as an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, to breathe deeply and talk myself through staying in the moment. I’d love to say it went well, but there were definitely moments of struggle.
If I want to get something done I need to make space and eliminate distraction. When I did so today I made a ton of progress. When I did not I faltered. I need to keep finding ways to not get in my own way.
Appreciation:
Starting the day with running in the cold (13f due to wind hill) and following it up with hot yoga (95+f) was an amazing experience. Getting that much physical activity to kick off a Friday was fantastic! I’m grateful for Becky’s encouragement to get me moving to enjoy it all. Left to my own devices I’d likely have done one of the two, thanks to her I got to experience the extremes.
Presence:
Laughing with the entire family while watching a movie together was outstanding and the music my soul needed.
When people are put into the crucible the best rise to the challenge and are forged in the fires of hardship. They come out changed and stronger.
Most don’t choose suffering voluntarily, but those who face it are presented an opportunity to rise.
Appreciation:
I’m so grateful for the deep focus we’ve put on our values in my teams. This has led me to better decisions in both my work AND personal lives. Throughout the day my life was improved by living into those values, seeing others live into those values, and by determining my actions by those values.
Presence:
Wow, tough call today! I’m going to go with two as both are worthy of being mentioned.
First, taking a moment to focus on recognizing an individual for something exemplary is a gift to the person giving thanks. The time spent recognizing and writing the thank you must be focused on that task in the moment just as they were in the moment they recognized the behavior of the individual. A doubling up of presence, how awesome is that?
Second, a quiet walk in a gentle warm rain is positively serene. The combination of rain smell, the patter of rain drops, and the slight change of view due to the precipitation is amazing!
There have been two past teachings that rang loud and clear for me today. Both ultimately say to take action, especially a kind action, when we feel nudged or compelled to. It is so easy to brush off the sensation and not act, to take action means intentionally making something happen which normally would have happened, taking on extra tasks or work. When we take those actions we are nudged to do we often don’t know exactly if it was worthwhile, we just have to trust that it was. Once in a great while we learn the difference that action made and it powers the soul to listen to that nudge more often. Today I’m grateful for those reminders, as well timed as they often are.
Appreciation:
Towards the end of my drive home a song flashed into my brain that perfectly fit the theme of my thoughts. Winners & Losers by Social Distortion.
There’s saints and sinners Life’s a gamble and you might lose There’s cowards and heroes Both have been known now to break the rules there’s lovers and haters The strong and the weak will have their day We’re devils and angels Which one will I be today?
Are you happy now with all the choices you’ve made? Are there times in life when you know you should’ve stayed? Will you compromise and then realize the price is too much to pay? Winners and losers, which one will I be today?
Social Distortion: Winners & Losers
It was the motivation I needed to take the right action. Thanks for the guidance Mike Ness!
Presence:
Today presence was found in pausing to think rather than reacting. My natural tendency is action, problem solving, or working towards completion. Instead of going on autopilot I paused and was present in the moment. I took time to consider the right action and am still considering the right next step. I’m glad I paused and stayed in the moment rather than just rushing through it today.
For a variety of reasons today I’ve felt the push and pull of grappling with control. What’s interesting is how much frustration I feel when I seem to have little to no control in different situations. While part of my brain pauses and knows I need to take a deep breath and relax my emotions seem to want to take over. Then I get more frustrated because I’m not controlling my emotions like I should…. Argh!!!
In those moments when I am grappling with control I need to remember to pause, take a deep breath, close my eyes, and choose gratitude. Ask myself, “what can I learn from this?”
Appreciation:
I’m grateful for the two times I remembered to pause and breathe as I described above. Before my Chamber meeting I parked my car, took a mental moment, and then started blogging. That helped a ton!!! On my drive home I paused my audiobook, switched to music, opened my moonroof, and blasted Hello by Martin Solveig. Pretty sure the drivers behind me may have called 911 due to my convulsions as I car danced all the way home. That felt amazing!!!
So glad I’ve been practicing the pause and breathe, it came in so handy today!!!
Presence:
Early this morning I put on my headphones and went for a nice cool walk. When I followed the bend in the road to the right I was quickly reminded of something Becky had told me the previous day.
Hanging in the sky was a dark orange moon. This was the last lunar eclipse for the next three years and I lucked into watching it in person. There were wispy lines of clouds which added to the effect and kept the sky ever changing, yet they were thin enough to see the entirety of Orion – who’s bow was seemingly taking aim on the moon. During the walk the color deepened and then lightened back into its normal light gray. What a spectacular event of nature to catch by accident early in the morning!
Remember to measure oneself against our own measurable standards and to not allow others to define our success.
I still remember an evening in which I was so angry about not being recognized by others, what a wasted time of my life. My success should be measured by my effort, my work, my practice, and my preparation. Those are successes only I will know. Measure myself by my expectations, not by those of others.
Appreciation:
Without getting into detail, today I’m thankful for being a part of the solution rather than being a part of the problem.
Presence:
The sunset tonight was EPIC!!! Beautiful clouds, vivid colors, gorgeous!
Reading a book once is wonderful, reading it several times is divine. I may set a goal of becoming a centireader…. Reading the sand book over 100 times. Each reading adds such depth!
Appreciation:
Tonight I’m grateful for a living room full of family. After being away for work much of last week it felt like our hone was complete again. Sure, we spent much of the time completing the FAFSA which was frustrating, but at least we were frustrated and laughed all together. So awesome having our full house.
Presence:
A very unexpected source of presence and joy was getting water. There was an odd sense of peace derived from the simple, yet important task. Throughout the day there’ve been a handful of times in which in I caught myself in a similar state. Moments of simple tasks can be such an avenue to peace and presence.
Whew… what a whirlwind the past couple of weeks have been! My brain is still reeling from the nonstop pace.
When I was planning the week I had a list of everything I was going to do when I got home to an empty house today. Instead I sat on the couch, snuggled with LuLu, and went brain dead for a couple of hours. Now I’m laying in bed and about to crash.
Here’s how I’ve grown today, I gave myself time and space to rest. My mind will be refreshed and ready for a more productive tomorrow.
Appreciation:
Working on a Saturday isn’t something I like to do often. Working and connecting with my awesome teammates makes it all worth it. I’m beyond blessed to have an incredible family who happens to work together!
Presence:
Waking up early on a Saturday is usually not a great feeling. Knowing I present better when I’ve exercised before was a wonderful motivator to get me moving today. There was a wonderful state of flow when I started the run while listening to the John Wick 2 soundtrack. Felt great!
After practicing my presentation for tomorrow a couple of times on the flight I picked up my trusty travel companion, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. My copy has been across the world and back, on backpacking trips, and pretty much everywhere I’ve flown in the past five years. Thinking I should have gotten it a passport as I’m pretty sure it has been to over half a dozen countries outside the US.
The passage that really caught my attention and got me thinking was this:
If you seek tranquility, do less… …most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility, Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4:24
What a thought to keep in mind as I tend to add more and more and more. It fits so well into the concept from the sermon last Sunday reminding us that “if the devil can’t tempt us he’ll keep us busy.”
Appreciation:
The Express Leadership Academy Alumni event was spectacular. So many mind blowing learning sessions, so much fellowship with fellow franchisees, and a surplus of opportunities to reconnect with friends. I’ve struggled to put into words all the things I am thankful for from the event, but I really can’t quite nail it down as succinctly as I’d like. Maybe the best way to put it is this…
When I consider the investment made in time, travel, lodging, and so on I cannot concieve of a possible way in which the scales would ever be balanced. There is no question the investment was paid for multiple times over by the positive impact the event has already had and will have in the future.
Presence:
In a slight twist to presence I’m going to be apprecative not for a specific moment of presence, rather for something which gets in the way of presence. The past couple of nights I’ve been in a hotel room in Dallas for training. I’m reminded of how thankful I am to have a career which doesn’t involve a ton of traveling away from my family. Not being there for a family dinner, to talk in passing as we’re all getting reeady in the morning, and to not give a good night hug avoids a presence I appreciate greatly. I’m glad I’m normally home and usually present with my family.
Thankful for Forty 