Happy Sunday Everyone:
When I was telling Kim yesterday about this topic for Sunday Thoughts, her comment back to me was “I like it but you also don’t want people thinking you’re in Las Vegas doing drugs”. So before I start, I’m confirming with all of you that I was not in Las Vegas, and I don’t do drugs, never have.
With that said-the past 30 days of my life have been out of control. I have been traveling a ton (all personal), I have been having a ton of fun, I have been staying up/out late, we seem to have plans every single night with someone, and I have been feeling less than perfect in the morning. In the past 30 days, my guess is I’ve been in the office less than 10 days. When I came home from being in Texas for a week last Wednesday Night, I was borderline depressed. I don’t like the feeling of being out of control, and I felt out of control. I spent Thursday/Friday thinking about the last 30 days and what I realized, and why I’m writing this, is although I was having fun, I wasn’t feeling good and it dawned on me a good life and a fun life are not the same, and a good life is way more important. Don’t get me wrong, I love having fun, but I signed up for a lot in my life, sometimes responsibilities I don’t always want to have, but as a whole, I’m grateful I have them. I have responsibilities to be a great husband/father, I have responsibilities to be a great coach, I have responsibilities to be a great boss, I have responsibilities to be a great business partner, and a great lender to my clients. In general, the way I like to think about it is a I have a responsibility to be a great person. If I died tomorrow and people simply said, “he was a great person”, that would be all I need. The last 30 days, the fun I’ve been having, has been getting in the way of my responsibilities. In addition, and more importantly, I got away from who I am, and I started resenting some of the responsibilities that make me better, I started feeling sorry for myself, like too much has been put on my plate, and I have the right to escape, to hide, to not deal with the responsibilities….That’s not having fun, that’s avoidance, and avoidance doesn’t get you anywhere. I apologized to my team on Friday for being distant and unavailable, they felt the brunt of the past 30 days more than anybody. They signed up for me as their leader every day, and they weren’t getting it. We’ve talked many times about the fact that a C player will eventually make an A player quit if you don’t deal with them, the same is more true for a C boss, a C boss will make an A player quit faster. So although this email is not fun to write, Sunday Thoughts started as a brain dump helping me put on paper what is going through my head, and me hopefully growing from it. Of all the Sunday Thoughts I’ve written, this is probably the most helpful to me personally. Although my vacation schedule is not over, I am back on track, I feel more so than ever actually, but here are a few lessons that have gone through my own head that you might think about too.
1. We are all going to get off track in our life and our careers, the faster we can acknowledge it, recognize it, and get back on track, the better. (side note-the people you choose to surround yourself with get you both on and off tracks).
2. Don’t confuse financial success with being on track. YTD I’m having my best year ever, but I still fell of my tracks and needed to get back on.
3. It is worth your time to think hard about what brings you joy, what makes you feel good, and do more of that. Although I LOVE to eat great food and drink great wine, a morning run brings me joy, too much wine brings me a hangover and prevents me from running.
4. Always give yourself a gut check on the simple concept of “do I practice what I preach”. I know people who do not practice what they preach and I don’t trust them.
5. If your social/business calendar is out of control, say no to more. I heard a great interview with a guy who said all of his decision are a “hell yes, or a “f no”…meaning if he’s going to say yes to something, he needs to be excited about it.
6. In general, people on this email have had others put a lot of trust in them. We need to think about that often and not take it lightly.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.