Living The Adventure

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

A Poem For the Day

Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

There were 5 Birds On A Log...

5 Birds on a log, 3 decided to fly away. How many left?

There is a difference between thinking about making a decision & actually taking action.

Friday, January 25, 2019

WHAT MOVES YOU?

What Moves You?

Is it a an emotional musical piece? An emotive acting scene in a movie? A commercial that triggers a memory?

An inspirational speech to motivate athletes? A reunion between a military parent & their family? A person who’s overcome great odds to succeed?

Knowing what Moves you is really important for your own leadership as well as the leadership you need to provide for others.

Some people are motivated by the crunch time stress. Some are motivate by reward for a job well done. Some are motivated by checking off a task list item. But what about yourself, what are you motivated by?

Call it your “WIN”. What allows you to look at a project, task or event and go WE DID IT?

This was super hard for me early on, even with working with teams. We could list things that felt good but it was incredibly challenging to be able to singularly & effectively place a clear achieved status in the column & label it a WIN.

I was very jealous of people that seemed to clearly articulate their departments achieved wins or status updates. It frustrated me that their responses rolled off their tongues so easily & often eloquently. It was if they thought about them ahead of time…

And that was a wake up call as a leader. Before we even implement an action step, before we started buying supplies, before we leave the planning floor, we as a team have to have a clearly articulated goal we are aiming for.

I know that if this event goes well, this one or two things happens______________________

Done deal.
It broke the mold in my planning & strategizing time. It helped me be able to lead teams better as It gave us tangible goals to aim for.

Those tangible goals allowed A hyper focussed aiming point to keep distracting, non-essential & new conversations off the table so we could stay on task.

Healthy teams often generate great ideas, it’s knowing which great idea adds to the current focus or would create a new focus which draws energy, efforts & time away from the main point.

What moves me is a team that can celebrate a unified win with personal individual victories that play to their strengths, talents & roles. If the team gets a win, but individual players feel they are overlooked or undervalued in their role in the team, it won’t be long before those team members are playing for a new team.

I want my team to never want to play for another leader.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

THE DAY FEELS LIKE A WASTE

When we work through the details & logistics of life in a given day there are a lot of complexities.  

If the alarm gets snoozed one too many times, that garment you thought was clean actually wasn’t and the dog decides not to have it’s normal routine it can throw off the entire rhythm of the day.

You could get to work on time, crush your to do list, lead well in a team meeting and feel like you’re on cloud nine. Then you can pick up the kids from school and the argumentative dinner over whether vegetables are a necessity to consume before ice cream can feel like it just wrecked your day.

Why? Like, seriously have you ever wondered why some simple things can completely throw off our day in a compounding way? 

Rhythm, we all have them.  We all find ways where we feel great about how things need to operate, flow, play out and allow us to operate at our best self.  There are subtle moments that seem to create chaos in the flow of how we operate but it's on us to know how to adapt in those moments, and often it is a moment we have to make decision as to how we'll respond.

This conversation for me centers around rhythm which is about fluidity, not rigidity.  Often we step into a rigid self-perspective on life and not a fluid adaptive perspective on life.  

Today, if something throws you off, think fluid adaptability and not rigidity.  

Yes there are always deadlines, details and decisions that need to be made but can they be adjusted to help with a crisis moment that came up or a inconvenience that has caused a shift in the day?

If you are leading others how you adapt will model for them how they could adapt.  Questions you can can ask yourself; 

--Does this conversation HAVE to happen right now?  

--Can you circle back to the data you've discovered?

If you are with your kids or spouse can you release tension about a topic or incident to create an atmosphere of security and peace in the moment verses an atmosphere of stress?