Happy Sunday Everyone:
Lot of thoughts rolling through the noggin this Sunday Morning. These are in no particular order and I’m not sure one has to do with the other, or it might be that they are all related.
Our family calls October “Marcktober”. Kim’s birthday is the 17th, my dad’s the 18th, Jack (16) today, and Thomas (14) tomorrow. My dad just turned 75. We were having dinner at their house. I asked him how is birthday was and he casually said he had reached out to his heart doctor and back doctor and thanked them again for what they did for him 6-7 years ago. I’ll skip the details but it was bad. Both doctors told him he had made their day, one asked him to join him for drinks. Why is this important? People don’t get thanked enough. Just because something happened in the past doesn’t mean you shouldn’t appreciate it today. He called them because he was sitting there reflecting at 75 how good he feels and their involvement with it, so he reached out. A 2nd point about my dad (picture below) and my recent realization (at 45) is how important it is to take care of yourself. Not everyone has the luxury of a clean bill of health, but if you have one, it doesn’t last forever, and how you treat yourself today matters when you’re 75. I have a new found realization of this and will do something with it, not so much as a chore but something I deserve to do for myself. My dad is very much enjoying the fruits of his labor, and in large part because he took care of himself along the way.
I have a weekly video call with my buddy Roy from 8:00-8:15 every Monday. He asked me how Jack was. I told I was a bit frustrated with his words of wanting to get back in shape from knee surgery but then not taking the actions to in fact do it, and at the level I thought appropriate. Roy’s advice back to me “don’t forget to look through Jack lens vs. your own”. Helped to realize a 45 year old dad, grinding on his kid to go to the gym probably isn’t all that effective. The bigger lesson for me, we’d all be doing a lot better if we took a minute to look through the other person’s lens.
Last thought. Was in Denver for corporate meetings. In talking about our culture, we were discussing some big picture themes as a group. A few of those were simply remembering to take a an altruistic vs. pessimistic approach in our efforts/communication, another was having “phycological safety” as a group, and a 3rd was “attacking problems vs. people” as we work on conflict resolution. If these themes are rolling through your organization its going to be a very healthy work environment.
So as I think about the last week of events and learning opportunities for me, and hopefully for you, I think about taking better care of myself physically. I think about remembering to look through someone else’s lens before “suggesting” anything. I think about remembering to say thank you more. The biggest one, and the one I struggle with most is “altruism vs. pessimism”. Pessimism is the ultimate growth stunter. It stops everything good from happening….work in progress for me!!
Have a great week ahead.