This morning I had that moment in which I paused and considered going back to sleep instead of running.  I was tired and the sound of a four mile run just didn’t sound too good.  Then I thought of my friend Cheryl Moreno and my run seemed pretty easy.

At 2am tomorrow morning Cheryl is waking up to hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim.  20+ miles of hiking with some pretty crazy elevation changes.  That is a pretty crazy hike!  And if you think that’s crazy, you should see some of the training plans she’s had to take on to get to this point!

Aside from being a huge hiking fan Cheryl is the heart of the Express Leadership Academy, a training program she helped imagine and build to help the most successful Express franchisees become even better.  Her trainings are always top notch, and she doesn’t shy from pushing us out of our comfort zones.  She’s the tough instructor that gives us the hard truth when we need it and the supportive coach that we need at other times.  The way she can bounce back and forth is impressive.  My experiences with Cheryl in Leadership Academy have had a tremendous impact on much of the successes my teams are seeing.

One of the things I appreciate most about Cheryl was the way she helped me understand Situation Leadership (SLII), an incredible concept designed to help us get and give the coaching, support, and direction needed as we take on new tasks.  Many years afterwards I still remember how she helped me truly get this concept, one that has helped me get through some of my toughest challenges.  From running a marathon the first time to driving on the wrong side of the road in Australia to helping be a better coach for my teams, her training has stuck with me for the long haul.

All that said, you know what about Cheryl really inspires me the most?  Her passion and grit.  She dreams big, busts her butt to make it a reality, and is smiling the whole way through.  She can accomplish anything.  When I see her dream something up I smile knowing that it will happen.  The things I’ve seen her take on are huge and she has to put in tons of hard work to get them accomplished, and she has the grit to do that.  Throughout the struggles, work, and set backs she smiles, stays positive, and keeps on going.

Cheryl, thank you for being an inspiration to me and many others.  Your grit and passion are truly amazing and motivate many.  Kick some butt, take some names, conquer the Canyon, and dream up the next big dream!

Thanks!!!

You’re going to have to bear with me on two very different fronts on today’s blog.  First off, as you’ll quickly see, this is kind of a tough one to write.  Secondly, as you see why it’s difficult to write you might cock your head at why I’m thankful for it today.  Trust me, you’ll see it come together at the end.

I really miss my dad today… a lot.  Of all of the days since his funeral I’m pretty sure this is the toughest one I’ve had yet.  Life is getting back to its normal pace – a departure from the non-stop busy-ness of the past few months.  Training is done, travel is done, the kids are in between events, and I had a day at home without plans.  Next week is a pretty sane week, back to normal.  As I have time to breath I’m feeling a big empty hole that Dad used to fill for me.

One of the biggest reasons for missing him today has to do with what I’ve been doing today.  We went for a hike to Perrot Park and had a great time, but it reminded me of a time when Dad hiked it with us.

After lunch I built a replacement screen for Dominic’s window and there were several times I just wanted to call Dad to ask for advice.  Three months ago I’d call him on something like this, he’d give me some hell, and then coach me through it.  I made it through the project successfully with the help of Becky & Dominic, but it wasn’t the same.

Insulating my workshop before winter is a project I’ve been going back and forth on doing myself or hiring a contractor.  Today I decided I’d give it a shot.  As I started looking at what needed to be done I immediately knew my first step…  call Dad.  That crushed me.  I felt like a little kid, completely lost.  After a bit I pulled it back together and went to a book to coach myself out of it.  Deciding to give it a shot I headed off to Menards for the first wave of materials.  While there I just wanted to call Dad up and shoot the shit with him…  but I couldn’t.  Once I got home and started working on putting up the baffle and thinking through more of the details I just kept wanting to talk with him more and more.

Projects like this were one of our times, one of our connections, one of the foundations of our relationship, and this was the first time I’d taken something like this on since he died.  It was more rough than I ever would have imagined.

As I could feel myself getting more and more sad I pulled from ideas from past blogs and the Book of Joy, and I flipped my thinking.  How amazing is it that my dad and I had so many great times together that I miss him this much?  How awesome is it that as I do these things that we’ve done together so many times I still feel this close of a connection to him?  How fortunate am I to have had him as my dad?  How cool to be able to have learned so much from him?  When I start thinking of it that way I can’t help but smile.  Yes, I miss him dearly, but I start to focus on all the incredible memories we made while working on projects like this and I feel happy.  I start thinking about the projects we worked on together, the times I called him for advice, and the smiles of satisfaction we would share after a project together.  I remember those times and my heart is filled.

So here’s the transition point.  When the dust settles on today, it was a tough day.  That said, I’m thankful for the tough days like this.  They hurt like hell, but they hurt like hell specifically because of how much I love Dad and the memories we created.  I am thankful for days like today because they remind me of just how much happiness and joy in my life has come from my dad.

Dude, I really wish you were here today.  It’s been a rough one.  That said, I know that you are here with me.  I’m so thankful for all of the time that we had, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.  Love you bud!

Thanks!!!

Birthday week is in full swing and I’m happy to be thankful for Dominic today!  For his 12th birthday he hitched a ride to the Dells to take an all day soccer referee class.  When I woke him up at 5:30 this morning he was smiling, happy, and ready for a great day.

There are so many reasons that I’m thankful for Dominic.  He’s incredibly kind and wants to make sure that everyone is included and enjoying themselves.  He’s giving of his time, always willing to help others out, and understands the joy that comes from helping others.  The kid got some pretty tremendous smarts from his mom and isn’t afraid of challenging himself to learn new things.  He dreams big and works hard to achieve them (like climbing to the top of the mountain!).  Throw in the fact that he a pretty amazing big brother.  I may be biased, but all in all, the kid is pretty awesome!!!

Super proud of you dude, thanks for being an incredible son and friend.  Your mom and I are so very proud of you and are thankful to have you in our lives!  You may not know this, but you help push me to be a better dad for you.  Thanks for being awesome!!!  Love you Bud!

Thanks!!!

This past week of training in Oklahoma City has helped me out tremendously in several ways.  The training is specifically set up for new Express franchisees opening up a new office.  This is the training that gets them prepared to run their new office, build it from the ground up, and learn the ropes of the staffing industry.

The reason that I wanted to get this training after being with Express for almost two decades was to learn what I was missing, to see how things are supposed to work, and find ways to help my great teams become even greater and positively impact the lives of more people.  To that point the training was an incredible success.

What I wasn’t expecting was the incredible motivation that I received from all of the new (& couple of old) friends throughout this training.  Being surrounded by so many successful individuals who were embarking on a new venture with Express was AWESOME!  They were pumped, excited, nervous, confident, and ready to become the newest superstars in our amazing organization.  Their positive energy was contagious and kept reminding me of why I got into this business in the first place.

In most cases they came to Express to help people, to create something special, and to become business owners.  Some wanted a change of pace from larger corporations.  Others wanted to live their purpose and find a way to help more people.  In all cases they came to Express for the same reasons that many of us have – a family of professionals united in helping people and creating new opportunities.

While I’m excited to go home and start using the skills I’ve learned, I’m going to miss all of the people I’ve trained with.  While we are all scattering across the country, I’m going to be thinking of them often.  When I’m down I’ll remember their excitement and get fired back up.  They are the heart of what our organization is all about, people willing to take a risk to help others while bettering themselves while living out their dreams.

Thank you so much to each and everyone I’ve had the honor of training with in both of these weeks, please know I’ll be thinking of you often, sending positive thoughts your way, and in contact to ask your advice when I get stuck.  I look forward to seeing you all at ILC and cheering for each of you as you head up on stage to get your award for hitting Fast Track…  the first of many successes you’ll have within Express!

A special thank you also to each of our trainers, the Express HQ team, and everyone else who made this an unbelievably successful training.  I’d also be remiss to not thank my wife and boys letting me chase my wild dreams with Express.

Thanks!!!

Tonight’s blog doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation if you’ve ever been to a baseball game.  To wrap up training our last night in Oklahoma City we had an excursion to the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark to watch the OKC Dodgers game.

The weather was perfect, the food was great, the beer was cold, and the company was fun.  All in all, it was a perfect night at the ballgame!  There’s just something that feels like summer when I’m sitting in the park relaxing like that.  I may not have made it through the entire game, but I enjoyed every minute of it that I was there.

Thanks!!!

This morning I woke up early and went for a run.  After a shower and getting ready for the day I spent almost the entirety of the next fifteen hours with other people.  Alone for but a short period of time, and then with other people for the rest of the day, and now alone to write today’s blog.

The funny thing is that I really like my time alone.  It gives me energy, I re-charge, I think, I relax, and I chill.  Becky knows when I’ve hit my limit on “people time” because I’ll start to get crabby and just need some time to myself.  That said, it’s also so easy to slip into too much alone time.  I find myself sometimes leaning to that side a little too much and there are times when I’m glad that life nudges me in the direction of more time with people.  Really, in a nutshell, that’s what I’m thankful for today, those nudges that remind me to stay connected.

Without getting into a debate about the entire story of Chris McCandless (read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer), there was a comment that he made that makes a lot of sense to me on a day like today…

Today I was reminded about this on many occasions.  Our training day was great and there were so many opportunities to connect with others in the class, the trainers, and other people in OKC that I only see every so often.  There was a moment to share my happiness with a team for hitting a goal for a second straight week.  I was able to connect with a teammate who’d been through this training before and we shared our experiences.  Becky and I were able to at least trade a handful of texts with each other throughout the day.  We had an excellent dinner with several of my fellow trainees and one of our founders, a meal in which we learned more about each other.  We took time to share where we came from, how we got here, and learn more about each others’ purpose.  There was so much connectedness and joy.

On the ride home I sat in the way back of the van, thinking that I’d like to have a little quiet and type my blog.  Fortunately, my friend Adam asked me a question about my blog and we started talking.  At one point he apologized and said he’d be quiet so I could type, but I closed up my laptop.  Where I needed to be in that moment was talking with him, connecting.  It was great!  While he was asking questions about this blog and gratitude I’m feeling like I got more out of the conversation being able to think and share why this is so important to me and my happiness.

Once I got back to the hotel I headed up to my room to type and then remembered that I had missed a call from my brother Nick earlier in the day.  I knew that if I called him I would probably be too tired to run in the morning so I shot him a text instead.  Shortly afterwards I thought of how much I would’ve liked to talk with my dad more and wished I’d taken the opportunity to more often.  With that in mind I called Nick and we shot the bull for a good 30+ minutes.  The conversation was mainly focused on laughing and TV, but there were also a couple of things we both needed to talk about that were more serious.  It was great to have that extra conversation time with him, to connect with him.

Now as I blog I’m finally alone.  As I think about it my day was so enriched by the connections that I had with other people today.  Yes, I’m going to need some quiet and alone time soon, but there will be time for that at some point.  The joy that I have today has come from being connected with others.

Thanks!!!

I’ve mentioned before that there are often days in which I struggle to focus on one thing to be thankful for, there are so many to choose from.  The funny thing is that often the unrecognized gratitudes seem to start to bubble up and ferment in my brain.  They blend with one another, share interesting connections, and create something even more beautiful to be thankful for.

Yesterday many of us paused to enjoy the eclipse.  Gavin got to see it for his birthday so he was pretty pumped up.  Our neighbors came over and joined Becky and the boys to enjoy the show.  My experience was a little different as I was flying as it started.  Due to a delay it looked like I was going to miss it, but I was happy for Gavin (and Becky & Dominic) and I was able to enjoy the picture of the boys sitting out in the sun seeing this phenomenon.  My disappointment was displaced by my joy for my family’s joy.

As luck would have it the airplane touched down earlier than expected and as I walked out of the airport with luggage in hand I was able to catch it one minute before it hit the peak in OKC.  It was awesome!  As I paused for a moment I saw many people looking a little disappointed…  I didn’t get it until I realized that they didn’t have the eclipse glasses so I started passing mine around to others.  Seeing their smiles and awe inspired by nature put an even bigger smile on my face.  It was pretty neat, there were many people all doing the same thing, all helping out their fellow man.  We were all connected, all enjoying the same incredible light show that God was putting on for us.

Eventually I made my way to the cab and got in for my ride to Express HQ.  The driver and I immediately started talking about how awesome the event was, how beautiful it was, and then we both just paused…  a thought hit me like a ton of bricks and I immediately shared it with the driver.

“How awesome is it that right now, in this moment, we’re all one people enjoying something incredible, something so much bigger than us.  Race, religion, politics, none of it matters to anyone at this moment.  We’re all just people enjoying the presence of something greater than any and all of us…  How awesome is this moment?”

We jumped into conversation and were immediately both on the same page.  He started telling me about his grandson in Atlanta that wants to be an astronaut, I shared stories about my boys.  We talked about family.  We talked about our faiths.  We talked about values.  As we kept talking I just smiled, it was like I was talking to someone who could have been my dad.  Nothing was off limits, we were openly sharing many things, helping each other, sharing joy.  It was incredible and by far and away the best cab ride I’ve ever had.

On Facebook today the old video of Becky and I hiking on the glacier in Canada popped up from this date six years ago.  During a break in training I put on my headphones and watched it.  First I was awed by the size and beauty of what we had seen, then I was stopped in my tracks by the smiles on everyone’s face.  Everyone was experiencing incredibly joy and happiness.  We were a bunch of strangers all mixed together enjoying time and stories with each other all while taking in the presence of something bigger, greater, and more beautiful than ourselves.  The best part is that about seven minutes in there is a smile that Becky flashes a couple of times as she turns to take it all in…  and that’s the smile that I think of when I think of her at her most happy.  It’s an incredible smile to behold and when my number’s punched that will without a doubt be the last image I see.  It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.

All of these thoughts started to blend and helped me start thinking about something.  How awesome is it that the natural world can provide so much joy to so many through connecting us while humbling us?  Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Maybe that’s why I love our nature based vacations so much, there’s this feeling of being completely humbled.  In the bigger picture, with different perspective, I am but one of seven billion.  I am here for but a flash compared to the Earth.  I am tiny, small, and insignificant in that moment.  I am humbled.  To be clear, this isn’t some call for help or lack of confidence or anything like that, it’s purely a dose of reality that maybe I’m not as singularly important as I often think myself to be.  My problems are bigger than anyone else’s, my successes are grander than anyone else’s…  you get my drift.  These experiences crush those thoughts so quickly.

The second half of why I enjoy vacations is the interconnectedness.  In our humbled state while enjoying this beauty and greatness of the world around us we aren’t black or white, christian or muslim, male or female, better or lesser.  We’re all the same.  We’re all one of seven billion.  We’re all human.  I think of our vacations (especially in Banff due to the video) and realize that almost everyone on the trails were smiling.  We were all experiencing great joy, and a lot of it had to do with how much more willing we were to talk with each other, start conversation, help each other see things we may have missed.  We help each other, we enjoy nature with each other, and we are one.  What a feeling!

As I wrap it up, I’m so thankful for the ability of nature to humble us, connect us, and create so much joy.  If only I took more time to appreciate ALL of the awesomeness of nature around me maybe I’d be even more joyful all the time?  Then, what if we all took the time to do the same?  What a beautiful world that would be!

Thanks!!!

See anything missing from this picture?

Yup, there was supposed to be a plane there by now…  But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Earlier today I called Charter to cancel our cable TV.  Every year we get a bill that shows a huge price increase, and every year I call to let them know we’ll consider leaving if they can’t do something about the price.  This year we opted to go in a different direction and I was frustrated…  scratch that…  infuriated when they offered a couple of options including reducing our bill by significant amount for essentially the same things we already had plus a little more.  After declining the offer we immediately suffered a phone and internet outage.  When I called back to get that fixed the customer service rep pretty much laughed it off saying “that always happens…”  When it didn’t turn on after a couple of hours I lost my cool and became a little unhinged, letting my emotions get the best of me.  It was finally sorted out, but I spent way more emotional energy on the debacle than I should have.

Later in day Gavin found out that there’s a really good chance that the sky is cloudy (possibly storming) when the eclipse is supposed to occur tomorrow.  With it being on his birthday, science related, and just flat out awesome he was crushed.  It took a very long time (and possibly shooting squirrels off the bird feeder with a paintball gun) to cheer him back up.  I was trying to help him understand that there’s no point in worrying about something that he has no control over, but he just wasn’t having it.

Funny how the Big Guy Upstairs can pull strings once in a while, isn’t it?  I got a notification on my phone that my flight had been delayed.  It had been delayed long enough that there was no way I would make my connecting flight.  Seeing as we live less than a mile from the airport I asked Gavin to come along with me while I went to sort out my ticket face to face instead of over the phone.  He eagerly jumped in the car with me and we were off.

Upon walking in we saw a room full of disappointment.  People who were also going to miss their connecting flights, customer service reps who felt horrible about being powerless to fix the situation.  I kept my cool and helped Gavin understand the situation.  At the counter we talked with the rep to see what he could do to help us out.  He typed furiously on the keyboard and kept apologizing for not being able to do more.  I took a deep breath and reassured him that I trusted him to do his best and that I’d roll with whatever he could come up with.  After a while he came up with the best possible solution, fly out on the first leg, stay overnight, and then fly out early the next morning.  We tried every option, and that’s all that we could do.  I thanked him for his help, and Gavin and I walked out with a smile.

As Gavin and I walked out we talked about what just happened.  “Hey Bud, did you notice that I didn’t get mad or frustrated?  This isn’t ideal and I’d really liked to have gotten there sooner, but there’s nothing I can do about it so there’s no point in being sad or frustrated is there?”  He smirked and fired off a pretty sweet one liner joke at me, “yeah, because you’re trip isn’t nearly as cool as the eclipse!”  I just laughed with him and moved into the next part of what I wanted hime to understand.  “Bud, how do you know that The Big Guy Upstairs didn’t do that on purpose?  Maybe something bad would’ve happened if I would have flown out tonight?  Do you know what His plan is?”  He smiled and we discussed it further.  By the time we got home I know he got what I meant.  I’m hoping it starts to sink in for him at an early age, his life will be filled with so much more joy if it does.

While talking with him the other thing running through my head was how I handled the situation with Charter earlier.  I really muffed that one!  If I could do it over I’d handle it differently, it easily could have been my frustration on each of the calls that led to result.  That said, I can’t change the result, but I can learn from it.

So why did I keep my cool in the face of adversity with the airline tonight while I lost it with Charter earlier?  It’s pretty easy, I saw an opportunity to help Gavin learn through an experience with me.  I handled the situation differently specifically so he could see what the “right” way to handle it was.  I became the role model because there was a lesson he needed to see, and I couldn’t let him down.  If I would’ve gotten upset it would have just reinforced his feelings earlier.  Gavin helped to make me a better dad today.

Funny how everything in life points to parents having to raise kids, but rarely does anyone remind us that by raising our kids we have the opportunity to become better people ourselves.  I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to learn from Gavin today, it’s put a smile on my face through a potentially frustrating situation.

Thanks!!!

Sometimes it cracks me up when two days are so similar yet so different.  Just yesterday I was thankful for the family tradition of grandpas buying pocket knives for their grandsons in Boy Scouts, and tonight I’m thankful for a family tradition that has gone on for a handful of years just like clockwork, the Hause family coming to vistit and spend some time on the boat!

This morning they rolled in and the boys all immediately flocked to the basement for an epic nerf gun battle.  After lunch we headed out for the boat and chilled on the sandbar, enjoying the sun…  and maybe a couple of beers!  Next thing we knew almost five hours had flown by.

As I’m sitting outside typing this while grilling the Packer game is on and we’ll just chill in the living room until the boys all crash.

This weekend is always a fun one.  The boys have fun together, the adults get to shoot the bull, and good times are had by all…  and there’s usually an early bedtime as a testament to just how much fun we’ve had!

Thanks!!!