In the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth, she quotes Will Smith as saying “Harmony is aerodynamic.”
When we can find our passion, when we can align that passion with our work, and even more so when the vision of our team member’s/families/coworkers, our movement toward that vision becomes so much easier.
That is why it is so important to have discussions about your goals with the people on your various “teams” (work/home/etc).
When you articulate your goals and they articulate theirs, you will find common ground and that makes it all the easier to move toward that future.
Work on collaborating to become a supremely aerodynamic force today 🙂
“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”-L.P. Hartley
“But plant your hope with good seeds, don’t cover yourself with thistle and weeds,”-Mumford and Sons, (Thistle and weeds song title)
In the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth, she discusses one of the main differences between people who have a growth mindset vs people with a fixed mindset is that those with a fixed mindset (feeling that achievements have a lower ceiling than others) carry around a feeling of hopelessness for change.
Most of the time this hopelessness comes from a negative past.
As L.P. Hartley eloquently put it, when we travel to the future, we leave the past behind. We cannot let the anchors of our past weigh us down from taking flight toward our future.
By all means, consider your current situation.
But also realize, that with hope, the future will look vastly brighter.
Dream big, plant seeds and sprout forth to a more meaningful and positive future.
So…it’s (its?) July, 2020 and the world is definitely on the wackadoodle side of normal. I guess a pandemic can do that. The thing that is most concerning to me, isn’t the virus. It is the fear, and how when left unchecked, it becomes a guillotine, sharp and divisive. Left vs right. Black vs white. Mask vs no mask. Vaxxers vs anti-vaxxers. The world has gone bi-polar and the middle ground (which is where I prefer to live on many things) is becoming a deeper and deeper canyon. Fear is a powerful and useful emotion. It is a great tool to spur action, to incite change. Fear should urge us to consider our options and steer our trajectory toward a brighter future. The key is it should help us use our other emotions and logic to make a decision. Fear should never drive the decision alone. Many times fear is irrational, and making decisions based on fear usually results in less-than-ideal situations. Fear is meant to propel us in short, fight vs flight moments. “Should I run from the grizzly bear, or fashion a bow and arrow out of that pine tree sapling and go toe-to-claw with the big fella?” Fear is definitively useful in those types of situations. But when fear gets to drive us on a day-to-day basis, the road we take will not be a straight, calm, collected or enjoyable one. When fear is behind the wheel, we are all over the damn road, erratic, swerving and taking a heck of a lot longer to get from point A to point B, because we aren’t really concerned with getting to point B at all, we just want to get as far away from point A as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time allowed. We aren’t concerned with a brighter future, we just want to run as far away from the here and now as we can.
Fear is regulated by a part of our brain called the amygdala, a primitive portion that when activated, shuts down our parasympathetic (resting) nervous system. Our heart rate increases, blood pressure elevates, energy is pushed away from our reproductive system and digestive system. The amygdala also puts the brakes on our prefrontal cortex a bit. As Marwa Azab, Ph.D. states in PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/202003/10-things-the-brain-does-in-response-pandemic) “In situations that may compromise your survival, the brain would rather be overcautious and wrong. Rumors, fake news, and anomalous stories gain credibility.” Our emotional systems override our logic-based ones and we begin actively searching for threats, rather than working toward a more calm and collected state.
In scrolling through the “news feed” of the day, I can’t help but stop at some comments that I know incite even more divisiveness. And when I read the comments, I am saddened by the loss of connection that is propagating. No matter what side people fall on any of the topics, I can’t help but feel disheartened by the anger and estranging comments. There is so much “if you don’t feel this way you are actively trying to hurt others.” Or “If you don’t feel this way, you are a sheep, blindly following those in charge.” As I said before, I wholeheartedly believe neither of these positions ring true one bit. For the past few years I actually have been telling my wife that I was concerned how separated our world was becoming. It seems there are two sides to so many things, and too often only two sides (I know that’s a lot of twos and toos). Recent events are increasing the gap and that worries me.
Human beings thrive on connection. We don’t always need to agree on everything, in fact having some discourse and disagreements can help us learn, grow and understand. But when we are sitting in a place of fear, anxiety or worry, the disagreements can escalate to firm, immovable stances, and “immovable” definitely implies, “not-growing.” It has been said numerous times before, but it bears repeating: we are only going to get through this crazy time together. I don’t mean that in a cliche sense. There have been numerous scientific studies that show the power of connection. In one such study, strong social connection was correlated with a 50% increase in longevity (https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316) and other studies have shown that social connection boosts immunity, lowers stress and increases empathy (which is something we all could use right now).
So, during this time, it is O.K. to put your stake in the ground so that others know where you stand. Just also realize that others have a different stake in a different ground and the best thing we can do as Stephen Covey has said is to “Seek first to understand.”
Jon Gordon has discussed this topic quite a few times on stage and in his books.
How many times do you think (especially on Monday’s) about what you “have to” do today?
“I have to go to work.”
“I have to take out the trash.”
“I have to pay that bill.”
“I have to unsubscribe from the free paper towels Monday email service. I still have no idea how they got my email…”
If you took the time and wrote out all the times you think about what you “have to” do, the list would be staggering.
If we could reframe those thoughts into “get to”, just replace one word, our world seems brighter.
You see, there are thousands of people who would love to GET TO do what you HAVE TI DO.
You have to go to work? Tons of people are out of jobs right now.
You have to take out the trash? A lot of people are homeless and don’t have a trash can to take out.
You have to unsubscribe from stupid junk emails? The world is full of people who don’t even own a computer.
And from another angle, everything we think we have to do, actually helps us somehow in our own lives.
So today, each time you think of something you have to do, spend twice the time thinking of how blessed you are to get to do it, and how whatever it is will actually help you in the long run.
Sometimes we forget that there would be no harvest without tending to the seeds, the efforts, the process, the journey.
The numbers are important. They are a way to see where we are at that moment in time. But they don’t tell the whole story.
Unless, we are hoping the story ends there (boring and finite).
No we forget that our efforts, our imaginations, our work ethic, our vision for the future and the connections we have and create with others will determine the bounty of future harvests.
It is impossible to precisely tell what the yield we be from our efforts.
But the key is to keep tending to the seeds, and to enjoy the journey.
Count the fruit, sure, but then get busy tending to the process :-).
“Don’t be the center of attention at your office.”-Dr Greg Howard
This was said at the wonderful zoomcast conference this past weekend. Dr. Howard was bringing the point home that even though we run our chiropractic offices, we should not be the center of attention.
This can be applied to any job/position.
True leaders earn their position as a leader by focusing on the people they serve.
You can be given a title of “leader” by virtue of a job description, but people will not truly follow you unless you first put them in the forefront of your interests.
The world is full of powerful people.
They are not necessarily considered leaders.
In large corporations, there are CEOs, CFOs, Vice Presidents, etc. There are also an innumerable amount of leaders on every floor, in every group and in al situations.
Strive to lead others, by putting yourself second.
If we all focused on helping others, focused the groups we get to help (lead), I promise we all would be better off.
Do you think the #1 pole vaulter in the world even knows who the #1 juggler in the world is?
Does the highest paid cricket player in the world have any idea how much the highest paid toothpaste ad man makes?
Does the world’s most renowned microbiologist have an inkling of who the world’s most renowned sous-chef is?
The answer to all of these questions (I’m 99.9% sure, can’t be 100% because the cricket player and toothpaste guy could be neighbors, you never know) is NO WAY!
The point is, if we scratch and claw to become the best in order to compare ourselves to others, the amount of people we can even compare ourselves to is minuscule when we think of the world as a whole.
We should all strive to be the best we can be at whatever we choose to do (and that doesn’t have to mean a job, or a sport, we can be the best dad/husband/wife/son/friend that WE can be).
But we should NEVER try to be the best in comparison to anyone else.
Because the fact of the matter is, we can never be the best anything besides our best selves!
“We need to stop should-ing 💩 all over ourselves!”
I loved it!
If you are exercising, reading, eating well, in a relationship, etc, because you feel you “should” be….stop!
Guilt is a repressor, not a motivator.
Instead, find reasons why you WANT to do those things. If you want to do them to form a brighter future, for instance, latch on to that, and let go of the “should.”
This morning I was reminded that last Tuesday was Suicide Prevention Day.
I was sitting at the table enjoying my breakfast after the kids and Sheri had gone to school.
In my Facebook feed there was a link to donate in memory of my cousin who took his own life earlier this year.
Another acquaintance from high school was asking for prayers because they were going through a really tough time right now.
A couple that Sheri and I are friends with are going through a divorce.
Someone else posted a video of a beautiful rendition of “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (done by a choir in Ireland).
Such a powerful song. And an even more powerful movie (A Star Is Born).
It made me think:
Life is hard.
Everyone is fighting battles that we cannot see.
Depression, anxiety, struggle, are all quite common in today’s world.
Everyday life can be challenging.
Being a parent is hard too. Raising kids is not easy, they need us so much as newborns (which is hard), and as they grow their reliance lessens/shifts. That is hard to adapt to as well.
Everywhere you look, people are working hard to provide for their families, they are fighting their internal demons, they are working to improve their own lives and the lives of others…
Not a single face you see is coasting through their life.
No one is lying back in the shallows, floating through life.
I know whomever is reading this is facing strife and struggle in their lives.
So, today (and hopefully everyday) share compassion. Give kindness to others. Try to make whatever interaction you have with all these beautiful, struggling faces a positive one. Even the simplest things can help lessen their (and your own) burden.
Connect. Serve. Love. Smile. Share.
Realize that not a single Pearson’s life is “shallow”, everyone is swimming “in the deep end.”
Dissemination of Inspiration 