Happy Sunday Everyone:
Yesterday was my 47th Birthday. You might recall from a year ago, at 46 I treated myself to my dream car. Paid top dollar for a perfectly conditioned 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible w/ suicide doors. I drove it out the drive way, it broke down a .25 mile down the road and it’s still in the shop (I swear this to be true). So 46 was a little bit more about the material which has proven to not work out so well for me, 47 is about the internals. I mean this very lightly, I’m not that into the material, It’s more funny than anything else but I am focusing on the internal stuff more and it’s paying dividends.
One thing that comes with age is reflection. What’s working, what’s not, what worked, what doesn’t work anymore, what brings me joy, what doesn’t, why am I making the decisions I’m making? I think the whole thing is fun and fascinating. I wrote a letter to myself at the beginning of the year, general concept was enjoy the ride more. Still work hard, but enjoy it more, be less impacted by things outside of my control, be more present with my family, stop doing things that suck the life out of me. I laminated the letter, it sits in my office, my car, and my favorite reading chair at my house. I glance at it daily and it’s coming to fruition.
Where am I going with this? I think birthdays serve as good reflection points, reality checks, directional questioning, and what I can proudly say at 47, and something that I know to be 100% true is if you focus on your own internal goodness, everything else compounds on the outside. What does that mean for me? It means making sure I feel good first, physically and mentally. I’m trying really hard to think of the words I could share with you to understand the confidence that I have in myself now compared to even a few months ago. It’s being okay with who I am as a person, it’s a belief I have in myself because of what I’m doing for myself. It’s an appreciation for me, it’s loving myself, it’s realizing honestly for the first time in my life that self-appreciation is better than self judgement. I’m making better decisions for myself and in doing so, those decisions have a compounding positive effect on those around me.
For those of you that have the feeling already, congratulations, for those of you who don’t, I wish I could place it in your heart for just a moment to understand what you could be driving toward and how good it can feel.
So thanks for reading “deep thoughts” by me…I can say at 47, I’m the same person I’ve always been, just a little bit better daily, and a poop load happier.
And for those that might say “how does this have anything to do with doing business”….I’m happier with myself, I pour into our team more than ever, our team would do anything for one another because we work on bettering each other as people first, our team carries that mindset to our business partners, and clients, and our conversion ratios are a reflection of it. More so than the volume alone (which is up double digits from last year), it’s how our team feels showing up to work every day, that’s the magic sauce people seem to struggle to understand. Do right and right happens.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and show yourself some appreciation!