Isn’t it cool when I get a little stuck on something and then the lightbulb goes off and I realize that I know someone who might have an answer?  This past week that lightbulb has twice been my cousin Chris!

As I’ve been working on my puzzle boxes I’ve started to check out doing one in something other than pine or cedar.  In hopping online I’ve found that it may be a little difficult to find the dimensions I’m looking for in a great looking wood.  Then I got to thinking…  My cousin Chris makes some pretty awesome things out of some pretty gnarly looking wood (see photo):

A quick note on Facebook Messenger and he was pointing me in the direction of a couple of places.  He even offered some up to me which was pretty awesome and appreciated!

A few days later my brain got to thinking and I remembered another beautiful project that he made and it gave me another lightbulb!  What if I used the idea of the block of wood he used for his bowl as the block for one of my puzzle boxes?

Seeing as he had done something similar before I reached out to him again for advice (pretty sure there should be a consulting invoice coming in the mail for me soon!).  Yo cousin Chris!  Any chance you could help with some advice on this:

Sure enough, he had some great advice that I’m pretty sure saved me a lot of heartache!  Had I gone the route I would have without his help I would have been pretty disappointed when everything started to shift out of shape on me.

While I’m especially thankful for all of the helpful advice and woodworking coaching there’s more to the story.  Mixed into his response was an absolutely golden nugget of advice that I’ll be saving amongst my all time favorite quotes… “Try try try. That’s all you can do. If it works you’re a master, if it doesn’t you just learned how to be a master.”  How perfect of an example of growth mindset is that?  Throw in an incredibly well timed dad carpentry joke using the pun of “wood” in place of “would,” and it has been great reconnecting with him over the past few days.

Chris, thanks again for the help, coaching, advice, and wonderful quote!  I appreciate it greatly!!!

Thanks!!!

As a self-admitted shiny syndrome apologist it can be very tough for me to take my time and let things work the way they should.  When waiting for something incredible to happen I have to use every ounce of grit I can muster to stay the course.  In past years it has come back to bite me when I’ve moved on to the next strategy too quickly when the progress wasn’t immediately seen.  The past several months have been very different.

With the help of my team, the Express Leadership Academy, my accountability buddies (past and present), my mentors, my business partners, and a cast of many others I’ve been able to stay the course.  Today was one of those days when I stopped and paused to see just how great of a thing we are building, and how much progress we’ve made.

In reviewing the final activity measures for the quarter (our Lead Measures) we were successful.  Over the past few weeks there was a very big push from my teams to wrap up the last bits of the goal that hadn’t been accomplished.  While we may not have quite hit our Wildly Important Goals (Lag Measures) we saw the dial moving in the right direction every single week for a sustained period of time.  Earlier today we made the very difficult decision to fire a client business, something that is done only after we’ve pursued every other option.  While frustrating that it got to that point, it was incredible to see how easy of a decision it was to make when we reviewed our values and saw how they fell outside of them.  For the first time in my career we took the first steps in firing a second client on the same day when we discovered another situation that was outside of our values.  No hesitation, it was very clear cut.  My managers and I rolled out a new training and development plan today.  It took many hours to determine and will take many more to implement, but it will be well worth it in the end.

As I stop and consider everything that unfolded today I have to pause and give thanks for being able to see steady and consistent progress.  Each of these things have taken a lot of time to get to.  We started clarifying and focusing on our values well over a year ago.  We’ve been working on these goals for over a year.  While it’s been tempting to make many changes to our goals – almost on a weekly basis – we’ve stayed the course with them.  All of the successes I was able to see today were the result of clear and consistent focus on them.  My short attention span often wants to jump to the next improvement, the next iteration, the next shiny thing, but in each of these cases my huge support team mentioned above have helped me keep that in check and stay focused to mission at hand.  It’s incredible to see just how well it’s working.  I am so thankful for everyone who has played a role in helping me stay on course.  Being able to see the steady and consistent progress today was truly overwhelming and I am so proud of what my team has accomplished, day after day after day.

Thanks!!!

Way back on Day 112 of last year I was thankful for a lesson from my dad (here).  Today I’m thankful for another lesson from him.

With a great night of sleep behind me I awoke this morning ready to take on the world.  After 9+ hours of snoozing I was ready.  My task list for the day long, my focus would be tested to keep up with everything I needed to do.  I was ready.

As the day started I was hammering through my list a little more quickly than expected.  Then slowly, but surely, the wheels started to fall off.  A couple of things didn’t go as planned.  Issues came up that I was ready for.  Obstacles got in the way and were blocking my path.  While passion and energy are some of my strengths they can also be my biggest weaknesses at the wrong times.  I could just feel my body starting to coil like a spring about to be sprung.  Ignoring it at first I started to tackle one of the obstacles.  As I progressed I became increasingly aware of just how tight I was getting.  At about the point I was about to pop I took a deep breath and thought about what I would suggest to a friend who was feeling the same way.  At that point I smiled, took a deep breath, and took a break from everything.

Way back in the day my dad always taught me that when I get frustrated the best thing to do is calm yourself down.  If that doesn’t work, walk away from whatever you’re doing for a few minutes and then go back to it.  Being a bull in a china shop bulldozing my way through the task rarely leads to happiness, it’s usually just a bigger mess to clean up.

In concept, it seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?  Take a deep breath, take five, walk away, calm down, and then go back.  Easy!  Nope, it is tough as hell.  The more frustrated I get the more determined I get (a huge strength at the right times) and the less likely I am to quit.  When things get tough I want to get them done.  Not always the best course of action.  I’m pretty sure my dad used to struggle with this too, the looks he shot me when I suggested he walk away from something that was frustrating him were enough to kill sometimes.  As I’ve gotten older I totally understand – if someone tells me to walk away I get more determined to finish it, but if I suggest it to myself I’m more likely to pause.  Hence the reason I asked myself what I would suggest to a friend…  It’s always easy to see from afar and tell someone to chill, but I don’t usually listen.  It’s easier to pause when I decide it’s time to pause, but rarely do I see it until it’s too late.  Combine the best of both and I ask myself what I would suggest to a friend and take my own advice.

So today I told myself I would suggest to a friend that their judgment was being compromised by frustration, their effectiveness deteriorating due to frustration, and it was time to take a break.  You know, you need to run to your accountant’s office today, this might be a good time?  I took a deep breath, smiled, and walked away for a little bit.  Now that I’m back I’m ready to dive back in and take everything on with the right attitude.  Life is an attitude, and after taking a brief pause, I’ve chosen the right one.

Thanks again for the advice Dad!  All those years of thinking I wasn’t listening while I was too busy complaining when you made me help you have imprinted some wonderful lessons in my brain.  Thanks!

Thanks!!!

Last night I mentioned to Becky that with the boys going to church tonight she and I could get our run in tonight instead of early in the morning.  My thought was that sleeping in sounded GLORIOUS!  Her response was a quick no, she had some errands that she had to run tonight.

This morning the alarm went off and we headed out for an early morning run.  While the extra sleep would have been nice it did feel amazing to get the run in to start the day.  This probably sounds crazy, but this is one of my favorite views while running early…

Yup, it was quiet, dark, and peaceful.  Very relaxing and calming to kick off the busy day ahead.

As I got into my car to head home after work today I just paused and soaked in the cold, wet, gray sky.  It was chilly and not great running weather.  Had we waited to run until tonight…  Yuck!!!

Today I’m thankful for running while the running was good.  I have a tendency to overthink  and over-strategize things and this was one of those cases.  When the weather is ripe for running I need to remember to take advantage of it and get moving.

Thanks!!!

Isn’t it funny how somedays you get bombarded with many different thoughts and life lessons?  Little moments of insight.  Wonderful nuggets of learning.  Great advice.  A vision of an example that sets the stage for your dream.  A question asked a week ago that continues to ring in your brain.  An explanation of someone else’s view of you that sheds light on you in a slightly different way.  Today there were many of these little moments and I’ve been able to take some time to let them sink in a bit.

Without getting into too much detail I was able to receive so many of those awesome little insights, lessons, questions, and concepts today.  They came at me from many different angles including the following:

I know, I probably shouldn’t have a winter pic in there, but it was one of the better recent family pics 🙂

Between a question asked by a good friend last week, some great advice from another friend last week, the Bruce Springsteen autobiography, a conversation with my business partners, and some brief but enlightening family time there were several things that kept reverberating through my brain.  It wasn’t until yoga tonight that there was that flash of insight that really blended it all into one unified concept…

Nick, our instructor tonight was wearing a T shirt with 4 very simple words on it…  Life is an Attitude.  As he explained the reason for the shirt it hit me that there was what I was soaking up from my other conversations and insights today.  Life is an attitude, and I am free to choose the attitude and life I want to live.  What a great reminder to wrap up my day!

Thanks!!!

Ahh yeah…  Good run in the morning, ready to get to work, pumped and excited for a good day and a playlist that includes songs from the following albums:

That’s right, you know it…  It was an all out rock concert in my car on the drive up to Winona today.  While I remembered way more of the lyrics than I had any right to my voice certainly has not gotten any better.  The only way I know that the car doesn’t have ears is that it didn’t yank itself into oncoming traffic 🙂

It was a great way to get rolling in the morning on my way to work.  I had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed the show, regardless of what it may have sounded like!

Thanks!!!

After a long weekend of camping with the boys Becky had an excellent idea, end the weekend with some yoga on Sunday night at Root Down.  It wasn’t until part way through the session that I realized what the little sticker right underneath my face said.  If you haven’t been to Root Down before there’s a little sticker on the floor marking the spots for you to set up your mat.  In most cases I’ve just gone kind of blind to them and don’t really pay any attention.  Today was a little different.

Joshua was our instructor tonight and he routinely has a pretty difficult workout planned for us.  Tonight was no different and it wasn’t long before I was sucking wind hard.  At one point I was on my hands and knees and I happened to see the sticker right in front of me and it immediately put a quote from “The Lego Movie” into my head and I smiled…  To quote the Master Builder Vitruvius, “Believe…  I know that sounds like a cat poster but it’s true.”

If you haven’t seen the clip, check it out here.  Do you have any idea how tough it is to focus on yoga while hearing the voice of Morgan Freeman coming out of the mouth of a talking cat?

As the smile started to fade I just kept focusing on that word.  Believe…  “I believe I can do this.”  “I believe I can try this.”  “I believe I can hold this pose for one more breath… for one more breath…  for one more breath…”  The word kept echoing through my head and I I kept believing in myself.  By the end of the workout I had pushed myself harder than I had for a long time.  I had tried new poses that I was able to successfully hold for at least a few seconds.  As I attempted my first headstand since I was a kid I kept thinking “believe.”  And I did, and then I did.  There were plenty of fails and times that I had to pause while others moved on so I could gather my breath, but it was better than normal.  I kept believing in myself.

During the final rest the word “believe” continued to pound in my head, it was the only thing I focused on.  How much stronger am I when I believe in myself?  What do I need to do to build my belief in myself in certain situations so I can believe in myself?  If I stay focused on three of my core values (grit, growth mindset, and do right) can I believe in myself all the time?  When do I not believe in myself and what is the result?  All of these questions kept coming to mind and I just smiled…  I believe I’ll figure it out eventually. 🙂

Thank you to the person who had the foresight to put the sticker with the word “Believe” right where they did, it was an excellent way to end the night…  And very motivating to stare at when my dripping with sweat forehead was collapsed on the floor.

Thanks!!!

Just like yesterday, who knows when this will actually be posted – coverage is extremely sketchy.  Also like yesterday I still wanted to make sure I took the time to chill, think and be thankful.

While so much of the free time of kids seems to revolve around electronics and screens it was awesome to spend the day doing anything but that (the screen time I had to type this being the one exception).  The boys helped out with cleaning sticks out of campsites for a while and then had a lot of time to have fun outside and entertain themselves.

Some of the boys went running through the woods and some decided to build a fort.  Working together they gathered logs, sticks and all the other necessities for an awesome shelter.  After showing them how to close up some of the gaps using small branches, pine needles and leaves they had a pretty sweet fort to play in and continue to build.  In no time they also had a sliding entrance door that would be opened for the lucky scout who knew the password (which was, ironically “there is no password”).  

The whole time the boys worked on it they were smiling, laughing and having fun.  It made me so happy to see them all having such a great time outside and enjoying themselves like this.  I’m so thankful that my boys are in Scouts – what a great experience!

Thanks!!!

This one may not be posted until a day or two late due to cell coverage, but I still want to make sure that I’m taking time to be grateful 🙂

There were many things to be thankful for today, and as I lay on my pre-1940’s bunk bed at Scout camp there are many thoughts rolling through my head.  Over the course of the day I was able to interact with many coaches, teammates, and friends as I made my way through my task list.  All the while there were many dots connected and new dots revealed.  It was an incredible experience, so many moments in which there were lightbulbs flashing on.

As I think about it I’m overwhelmed with trying to figure out where to start with today’s post…  but there were a few themes that kept coming up.  They weren’t always all together in each moment, but there was usually a combination of two of them at minimum.  The recurring themes are growth, opportunity, & self reflection.  My mind is still bending as I try to look at the bigger picture on this, there’s definitely a connection between them all.

While this will be a thought I continue to ponder today I’m just thankful for running into the crossroads of all three today.  To each and everyone of you I interacted with today – thank you!

Thanks!!!