The Road Less Traveled

In case you hadn't noticed, I've taken some time off from my focus on sharing my thoughts and working on my calling - building others to greatness (at least in a public arena).  This was due to a number of reasons, with first and foremost having retired from my 8 to 5 job in Wisconsin, and moving to Florida.  That happened in November of last year.  Once in Florida I needed to established my life - to determine what this new location held for me both physically and spiritually.  Sooooo, it's taken until now to really get my feet underneath me and to start to feel, see, and envision my path as embraced by these changes.  Which brings me to the subject of my chat today - change.

So here are some words that have gelled together, for me, around the concept of change: minimizing, reducing, eliminating, sorting, valuing, letting go, collecting up, prioritizing, relocating physically, relocating mentally, adjusting, reflecting, death, rebirth...here are some emotions that I have processed during this time: fear, uncertainty, anxiety, happiness, exhilaration, anger, regret, doubt, love, surprise, disappointment, distrust, trust, loss, gratitude, self compassion, empathy.

WOW! So Yeah! That's a lot to go through in four months, never mind a HUGE economic change.  In the end, I know, after four months, that I made the right choice.  Change of this level is very much like the birthing process, in that it is somewhat traumatic.  And, like the birthing process, it is helpful to have people around you who are there to support you, encourage you, physically hold you and emotionally love you as you process this struggle.  That's not to say that I executed this change with grace, skill, or finesse.  At times the process was painful, awkward, and complicated, more than I feel in hind sight it had to be.  All that being said, in the end it was successful.  In the end that is what is important, that at the age of 60 I was able to transition to a different life, and it didn't destroy me, or harm me, or in any way leave me depleted.  Instead, I have emerged exponentially better for the effort.  I am substantially happier, energized, healthier, and most importantly inspired, fired up, and purposeful.  And it is about my calling, my purpose, my gifts that I bring to the world.  The energy that I was putting into other people's causes, products, purpose, wasn't aligned well.  It's not that I don't give, volunteer, help, and work with others and their causes, it's that the balance and alignment is now MUCH healthier.  The change that I chose meant taking a substantial reduction in compensation.  That was one of the toughest changes to adapt to, but I have found I truly need very little to thrive, and I see that following my calling, my passion is the right thing to do and is evolving an income stream that is truly in alignment with who I am and what I love and believe in.  It feels soooo much better than making as much as I did when I was sacrificing purpose in order to make a living, and I couldn't have done any of this without the support of those who believe in me and who believe in the gifts that I bring to the world.

With Love

The Ludicrousness of Low Hanging Fruit

There is a mantra in a lot of businesses that focuses on, "tackling the low hanging fruit".  In the company conversations I have been privy to, the catch phrases that proliferate are ones like, "quick wins", "move the dial", "raise the bar" - you've heard it too if you've been there.  So here's the problem, there are some deep lying flaws to this approach that cause companies and good people who truly want to move the organization in good directions to endlessly chase their tails.

The first and most debilitating flaw to this way of thinking is that most if not all of the low hanging fruit does not address the root of the problem.  Low hanging fruit, or symptomatic problems, arise from much deeper issues.  So the challenge for organizations is to not get caught up in the busy work of low hanging fruit and to step back and truly think deeply and communicate effectively to uncover the true challenges that lie at the root of these symptomatic issues.

The second, and most personally debilitating flaw, for individuals involved in chasing low hanging fruit, is that these individuals get a false sense of success and accomplishments that feeds a career path based on wrong thinking.  Companies that have leadership teams who think that low hanging fruit is the be all and end all, become companies who continually feel the need to tighten their control over their people because they have failed to let go of their limited thinking and to look for the root causes of their challenges.  Fault finding and blaming is the child of flawed thinking.

Day 9

Sometimes life is like sitting at the wheel of a fast car.  You can get so wrapped up in the way that it looks and handles, that you forget that the whole purpose, in the first place, was that you were actually GOING somewhere.  This is me at the wheel of a fast car (a friend let me borrow his car this summer to take one of my "peeps" to lunch in).  It's a great memory!