Happy Sunday Everyone:
Let’s keep talking about my birthday and me…enough about you, let’s get back to me. Not exactly the messaging I’m trying to accomplish here but also a little hard not to in this particular case so please bear with me.
I was out of town Wed-Sun last week and our team usually celebrates birthdays together. Team gift, 1/2 day off, etc…we try to make it a big deal. I came in on Monday and it was my day to celebrate. Although we’re remote, a few more team members were in the office, and overly excited for me to open my gifts during our team meeting. New theme is fun, so I was given a state of the art fart machine w/ remote, a wine glass with “Funter” etched on it, and a customized tee shirt that says “NOW ENTERING THE WORLD OF FUNTER”. I was sitting back laughing thinking this is perfect. There was one gift they wanted me to open last, clearly a book, and a big one at that. So as I’m opening it, I see this really nice quality book, and it says “Sunday Thoughts”. First thought for me was they found me a book someone else has written titled “Sunday Thoughts”. Then I turn it on its side, and it says “Sunday Thoughts” followed by my name. Then I’m thinking it’s a big ass journal they customized for me to write in…I swear this all to be true….Brigitte finally says “OPEN IT”….I go 1/2 way in and started to realize they had captured all of my weekly thoughts (in chronological order) and put them to print. Erica/Brigitte were the creators of this idea and had to have spent hundreds of hours on the project. They had a dedication on the first page, followed by entries from Kim, my boys, a couple of my mentors, and each team member sharing what our relationship meant to each of them, all in print. We are talking a professional grade, high quality, hard cover, book (I’ve attached two pics). For the first time in my life I actually understood what it meant to be speechless. They wanted me to read the dedication, I couldn’t, I literally couldn’t speak. It’s the most meaningful and caring gift I have ever received in my life.
So sitting back here this last week, staring at this thing, pondering, and thinking “WOW”, here are few thoughts going through my head.
1. Being on the receiving end of a jaw dropping gift is awesome. How could I not say that, and mean it. HOLY COW. To surround myself with people at work that would be so unbelievably caring and thoughtful is a dream.
2. The notes from my family and team will live with me forever (well now so will the book:). Again-to be on the amazing side of hearing other people’s gratitude for their relationship with me, makes me want to pay it forward to others. In large part because of the transparency/vulnerability they shared. We always talk about thank you cards, if you’re going to send one, make it count. They made it count and because of it I will cherish their words for ever. I need to remember this when someone is on the receiving end of my note/words.
3. Human capital is alive and well. I think it would be a bit of false humility to say “oh shucks, I’m not sure how this happened”. Truth is our team’s top priority is caring about each other, and investing in each other first. That mindset started with me, but my team took a thought from me and then built into something I never could have dreamed of, and now I’m one of the recipients of what it means to be around a group of people that care about each other at a different level. It’s how I ended my thoughts last week about our team doing anything for each other and how that manifests itself to the interaction we have to the outside world (clients/business partners) ..and then I walk into this the next day. WOW.
4. I’m more aware today than ever in my life that people all have different wants and needs, and we’re driven by different ideals/things. I “believe” my #1 want is having high quality relationships over anything else. I’ve known this for a while but perhaps thought I was being “soft”. I’m okay with soft now. If this is soft, it’s works for me and what I want/need to experience my best life.
I really have nothing else to say except to say that it’s a beautiful thing to be overflowing with gratitude for the relationships I have.