One of my all time favorite business thought leaders is Jim Collins. I’ve read almost all of his books at least three times… except for the one I didn’t realize existed! Somehow I missed seeing this book when it originally came out which still blows my mind.
What’s been especially insightful in reading this is the way he uses this book to tie so many of the concepts from last books into The Map for growing a truly great business. Not only am I receiving new concepts and ideas, I’m getting an awesome review of so many of his past concepts. Seeing the integration of all the ideas cultivated through the last two and a half decades has been profoundly insightful!
We’re all still getting used to things be different in our home with Skywalker gone. It hits each of us at different times for different reasons. She was definitely very loved and will be missed for a long time.
This evening we’re heading up to greet Matt at the airport as he arrives back in Wausau. No big deal usually, but now it would have meant leaving LuLu home alone during the work day and again the majority of the night. Rather than leave her home alone we decided to adjust. Look who’s riding along with us tonight?
It’s going to take a while to figure out our new normal, but we’ll keep adjusting until we get there.
I’m not sure what happened, but there were a couple of onion cutting ninjas running about our office this afternoon. When I went to sit down for our team meeting I couldn’t find where to sit as all the seats were full except for one that had a plant and card in front of it. My teammates must’ve seen me struggling with the math and told me to sit at the seat with this in front of it:
Talk about incredibly thoughtful. The ninjas started cutting onions and my eyes started to water to the point I had to walk out of the room. They must’ve cut more onions later as I looked at the card and the plant while alone in my office. One of them even snuck into the car and went to work while I drove.
For reals, what an awesome act of kindness from the team. My entire family enjoyed the card and plant, it created many hugs and watery eyes. I’m beyond blessed to have such loving and caring people in my life.
While I often dive into details about my gratitude tonight it doesn’t seem necessary. I’m grateful and proud of my sons, they understand that it is okay to have and show emotions. So proud of them and the way they are handling the loss of Skywalker.
I just wish there was away I could ease the pain and hurt they (& Becky) are feeling. So many memories back to losing Dad, this feeling of powerlessness is brutal. Times like this become so difficult to focus on gratitude rather than hurt.
Our boxer, Skywalker, passed away suddenly today after doing her favorite thing, going for a walk with Becky and LuLu (Skywalker’s sister). The loss of one of our family was very much unexpected and rough for everyone in our home. It still feels very surreal and seems to hit each of us at different times.
The boys and I were up at Mom’s when we got the call from Becky. We quickly realized that the right place for us to be at that moment was home with Becky and LuLu. Huge thanks and appreciation to Mom for understanding our need to cut our trip very short. Our ride home was brutal, each of us dealing with the sudden loss. The two hour drive seemed to last three times that long.
Once home we spent time together in the living room snuggling with LuLu and looking through old pictures and videos of Skywalker. From there we all just crashed on the couches and fired up a movie while snuggling with LuLu. Pretty soon I’ll be off to bed.
Tomorrow we’ll start our first day without Sky around sharing her positive energy with us right away in the morning. At least we will continue helping each other through the loss as a family. As difficult as it is to suffer loss, I am so thankful for our ability to help each other through it as a family.
Yesterday morning I was on an enlightening webinar featuring Dr. Cindra Kamphoff. While there were many notes taken there was one line which stuck in my brain. “Things don’t happen TO you, they happen FOR you.” Let that one sink in for a moment… “Things don’t happen TO you, they happen FOR you.”
With one little phrase the key to reframing our mindset can be changed. The key is to consider how whatever is happening can be used as an opportunity to learn. In many ways it’s a twist on one of my favorite questions, “What can I learn from this?”
Today I had more than a couple of opportunities to practice this. They presented themselves as mild annoyances. Someone driving 20 mph below the speed limit on the interstate a couple of miles from my exit with a line of over a dozen cars behind it. Someone parking in the second to last spot in the lot and parking about six inches over the line and into the last remaining spot. As I type this I know how lame both of those sound and it’s pretty disappointing to admit I was frustrated by both of those moments. I was stuck in the mindset of thinking about how each of those things had happened TO me.
As I was slowly calming my brain down and working back into a good headspace in yoga I could feel the stress fade away. I focused on my breathing and the stretching and all was good in the world. At the end of our practice we moved into final rest, a few moments of complete quiet and stillness, one of my favorite parts of the practice. Complete stillness…
…until someone coughed. Then a sneeze. Then some heavy breathing. The sound of a water bottle being moved. Someone nearby moving a little to adjust themselves. Distracting sound followed by distracting sound, one after another, after another.
As I lay on my back with my eyes closed and a towel over them I almost started to laugh. I could hear Dad’s voice in my head, “how’s the stillness now Mikey?” as he laughed along with me. Each time there was another noise I could feel my body starting to convulse as I fought back deep belly laughter.
While I was not in a deep state of calm and there was noise all around me I chose the right mindset. This was all happening FOR me. What an opportunity to remember how important it is to choose the right mindset, to choose growth over frustration.
One of my favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations was going through my head as I started to laugh quietly during yoga.
“Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.”
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to practice swapping two words to swap an attitude and opportunities to choose stillness.
Early in the day there was quite the surprise awaiting my entire team and I. With no notice our email server and all our Express specific websites went down. Out of the blue one of our most heavily used tools was removed from our tool belt for the majority of the day. This was exceedingly frustrating for a couple of minutes as I quickly re-calibrated my plans for the day. Once I had a new plan set I went to work.
What quickly hit me was how relaxing it was to not even feel the gravitational pull of the email inbox. There was no option to check it or even be tempted by it. My mind had more capacity to focus on my task at hand, the extra brain power was greatly appreciated and immediately put to use. The forced focus was awesome!
Throughout the day I was able to keep making progress on a huge project. With my door closed, phone off, and no email I was able to put long strings of focused time into the project and even had a workable prototype by the end of the day. Not too shabby! Always feels great making progress.
And now I’m off to bed. Not gonna lie, I am ready to crash. After the crazy schedules over the past week I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and my normal routine. Ahh.. early bed times, how I hated you as a child and adore you as an adult. 😉
I’m a huge fan of getting enough sleep each night. Sleep is one of my favorites, no question. Now, that said, I have not been sleeping well at all lately. And it has been 100% on purpose. Why on earth would I sacrifice my sleep when I value it so much? The answer is pretty simple and totally surreal.
My brother-in-law, Matt, is the Skip of the Team USA Wheelchair Curling crew in the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing! A couple of quick clicks and we had access to watch all of his Paralympic curling matches live and on our TV. Talk about wild, we are watching Matt curl on our Living room TV!
Being able to watch “Uncle Matt” living out his Olympic dreams has been awesome. Completely surreal, and totally amazing. We’re all having so much fun watching him and Team USA compete with best countries in the world.
Thanks for letting us hitch a ride on your dream Matt!!!
What a fulfilling day on so many levels. Seemingly around each corner was an opportunity to grow, to love, to support, to help, or to feel incredible sense of purpose. Not everything went as planned, but even the things that didn’t happen as expected presented opportunities for beauty, love, and joy.
When I stopped at Caribou Coffee to pick up some drinks for my team I was presented a new opportunity. The cashier was hearing impaired and smiled and pointed to the whiteboard. This was a first for me and it was an experience I’ll never forget.
Without spoken language we communicated the order for six drinks with various intricacies. We laughed together at various times, helped each other through hand motions, and shared so many smiles together as we proceeded through the transaction. At one point when she was trying to help me answer a question she resorted to wrapping her arms around herself and acting like she was shivering. “Iced!” I proclaimed with glee and a giggle. It was amongst the most pleasant and joyful customer experiences I’ve ever had.
As a writer and speaker I’m a huge fan of words to communicate. In many ways they are the tool of my trade, my most trusted implement. With the inability to use them it was interesting to see how quickly we were able to adapt and still make a connection. At a deep and primal level it helped me see that we are all truly wired for love.
There were so many other moments which touched my soul. Receiving coaching from teammates, listening to friends, seeing how past mistakes were translated into learning which was passed on as wisdom. Seeing how different we all are as people and yet how perfectly similar we all are. Recognizing our shared anxieties and helping each other through them. Realizing a profound sense of purpose in both helping others and in receiving help. Sharing in our humanity, sharing love and joy even in, and especially in, moments of pain and frustration.
If today were my last day upon the earth I would go into the next completely peaceful and knowing I’d spent much of my last day of this life witnessing the beauty, joy, and love we are all capable of.
Another Monday night yoga practice, another moment of profound insight nestled in the deeply calm state of presence.
The two biggest reasons I love hitting yoga are the physical workout as well as the focused presence. Put those two components together and I’m always grateful for taking the time to get all namaste.
While those two are the headliners there’s an awesome added bonus which sometimes appears when my mind is deep in that state of serenity. Occasionally an idea will hatch during the practice. A little nugget of wisdom worth more than one hundred times it’s weight in gold. A magical moment of clarity and understanding which help me understand some better than before.
Tonight that gem was the realization that when learning and attempting something I’ve never done there is no stress about anything else in life. The act of focused and intentional learning create a state in which there is no concern or anxiety about anything outside the task. If I’ve truly set my soul properly there is also no anxiety in what I am learning, there is only the bliss of play. How wild is that? When I find myself stressing or anxious I need only play a little game with myself – what can I learn from this – to transition from anxiety into calm.
That bonus lesson buried within a yoga practice was yet another example of how much can be gained by pausing the busyness of life and intentionally choosing stillness and presence. As Becky pointed out on Friday, the world would be a much better place if everyone paused for a moment to practice yoga. The entire world would quickly become all namaste.
Thankful for Forty 