Happy Sunday Everyone:
Last week’s Sunday Thoughts created more response than any other ST’s I’ve ever sent, by a long shot. The responses were all over the map…mostly positive, but clearly had some people thinking about their life and what their own look back might look like.
I was running this morning and I heard these words “personal responsibility leads to empowerment”. The 5 year look back is an effort for me to take personal responsibility for what I want my life to look like. I can honestly tell you I feel more empowered today because of the exercise.
My two favorite thoughts for 2020 thus far and something I’ve been thinking about a ton is:
1. Clarity-gaining clarity in everything I do. The more clarity I have in what I want my life to look like the higher the probability it will come to be. The more clarity I have in my job, the more successful I will be, the more clarity I have in what type of a leader, father, spouse, and friend, I want to be, the more likely it is to happen. The more clarity we have in what we want our company to look like & act like, the higher the probability of getting there. This isn’t new stuff…but its empowering when you gain clarity in it.
2. Intentional vs. behavioral. Rick just rolled through this thought on a coaching the coaches call and to me it was as profound as anything I’ve heard. The simple practice of asking “is my behavior in alignment with my intentions?”. I say I want this for my team but I do this. I say I want to look like this as a father but I do this. We say we want our company to act like this, but we do that. How far apart is our behavior vs. our intentions. The closer intentions and behaviors are together, the better.
This isn’t to suggest I cruise around with massive amounts of clarity in all that I do, and it certainly isn’t to suggest my intentions/behaviors are one in the same. What I am saying however is that because I’ve taken more personal responsibility to be aware of how little clarity I have or how far off I am on behavior/intentions leads me to right the ship much faster than in the past, and that is empowering. Knowing how to fix oneself and being purposeful about it is liberating and empowering. Banging your head against the wall for the 1000th time is not liberating and not empowering.
So what the heck am I trying to say here…such a pain when you know exactly what your point is but you can’t articulate it.
5 year look back exercise is important. I have my team, coaching students, and family doing it (Kim’s choice, boys not so much). Seems like a lot of us are a little lost right now. Even if your life isn’t exactly what you want it to look like today, having a road map, which requires you to get out of the day to day grind and actually think about what you want your life to look like is important. If you can gain clarity on this, and then hold yourself accountable to bridge the gap between your behaviors and your intentions, you’ll see a change for the better. I can speak from experience and say I’m currently on the right side of what taking personal responsibility feels like and it is in fact, empowering. Don’t want to soap box anyone but do want to share in hopes it rubs off on anyone struggling.
Coaching students: to make this more clear on how to execute on this. Our team will write out their 5 year look back, it will be laminated, the 1st 10 minutes of our Monday team meeting will discuss one area each team member will be working on for the week to get closer to where they want to be. This will ensure we’re looking at it weekly and doing something about it. Very similar to what we already do w/ the wheel of life, the 5 year look back will replace this activity.