To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Grit

Simple Thoughts Sunday: God says GO

(quote from @SamuelRodriguez via Instagram)

How many times have you had something difficult to overcome and you kept going to God in prayer? Frustrated that it seemed like nothing was happening, and doubting your own faith.

In my life I have definitely seen that there are plenty of times that I was supposed to CLIMB over it, through it, and sometimes with blood, sweat and tears involved. (Lots of tears and not a lot of blood, thank God.) Lots of conversations and heartache, and yet we must CLIMB.

It is in those experiences that I believe we grow and learn the most about ourselves and how to endure so that we can truly become who we are supposed to be to serve the VERY BEST. As you are planning your week, give some thought to anything that you have been hoping that God would take away. Perhaps your direction is to move through it.

Have the very best week! Less than a handful left in this crazy year!

Coming up for air! (Launching into mindfulness)

(Photo Creds: Canva)

I’m finally coming up for AIR. (See side note below if you’re interested.)

Does anyone else ever feel that way after a period of being either gone or otherwise detained — or both — from real life?

In the business world, I worked with a colleague that often used that phrase, “Oh, he/she will come up for air once they realize (their mistake, or whatever)…” It took me a while honestly to understand what they meant, but boy do I understand it now, on soooo many levels. I find myself coming up for air in finally “getting” a new concept, in working with people and trying to understand their point of view, and of course when I’m swamped and actually am coming up for air.

When I was gone, I spent some time researching the concept of mindfulness. It seems to be a hot topic, and aside from reading various articles on the benefits of meditation and yoga, I didn’t really understand what the big deal was. Maybe it was just the world’s way to change things up a bit to get your attention again on a topic? Regardless, the end result is the same and worthy of our attention.

That would be an overall goal of improved focus and awareness.

This could be of something as simple as your breath, or as complex as seeing the intricacy in beautiful architecture. Using that last example, if you are local and haven’t really walked and admired the streets of downtown KC around the Power and Light area, please do so. I looked at this recently with new eyes, and we have some simply amazing architecture.  A dear friend was with me and she explained so much of the history that I had no idea about. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe I’m almost 50 and know so little. I think I need more than one life so I can consume all of these wonderful details life has to offer.  One more reason for those of us at earlier ages to realize the importance of becoming “mindful” to our world. All parts of it!

I’m going to spend the rest of this week, Thursday and Sunday focused on the topic and I hope it is of great benefit to you. As you set your eyes on being the best, on serving the best, loving the best — MINDFULNESS is a terrific place to start in going deeper and achieving a higher calling. I’m in for that for sure!

Side Note:  I am not one to share the details of my life because I figure everyone has enough of their own “stuff.” If you are on my Instagram, you may have saw that we went on a life trip, and journeyed through some of the places that the Apostle Paul traveled during this mission. (Paul wrote much of the new testament, credited with 13 chapters.) I was fortunate to have two of my boys along for the trip and really missed the third. At the same time we were preparing to leave we moved into a “pod” temporarily and then day we returned, into our new home. A little chaotic to say the least, but alas, daylight is coming through. If anyone is interested, I would so love to share the story of the trip. Please let me know!

It is not the critic that counts; it is the man in the arena… Battling it out… Doing the work…

(Photo creds: Canva)

Don’t you love how something said in 1910 is still true today? You may not be familiar with this speech, so please read it. It’s terrific. It resonates with me considering how our world today seems to be infiltrated with sideline judges.

Granted, most of us do what we can, jump in where we see a need, vote on issues that are important, etc. But we can easily fall victim to those “judges” often hiding behind computer screens. These are the “Monday morning quarterbacks” reporting on how we “should” have navigated whatever the trials of the day may be… Hurricane preparations, actual game day errors, conversations that should have taken a different direction, etc… What we need are those that call out what was done WELL! To focus on what we really desire… EXCELLENCE.

I just LOVE the idea and ACTION of GRIT, of working it out with blood, sweat and yep, tears at times. The key words of GREAT DEVOTIONS, WORTHY CAUSE, DARING GREATLY… are STRONG, RESILIENT, LIFE GIVING, ENERGETIC, and IMPORTANT.

Step into an ongoing effort to build a WORLD OF ENCOURAGEMENT… In your home, work place, school, community… and GET ENGAGED with the GREAT WORK OF BUILDING AN EVEN GREATER WORLD!

“Go up to the plate and get mad”

“One of the great oddities of baseball: success is relative. A hitter who fails 70 percent of the time at the plate is a potential member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and many World Championship teams lost more than 70 games during their title winning seasons.” – Don Yaeger (American Sports Journalist, Author and Motivational speaker)

Before I decided to write a blog post on the value of base hits, I hadn’t really done the research. My idea was to chat about the importance of “getting up to the plate.”

Although I knew that a good batting percentage was in the “300s” I didn’t really think about it as the insight above illustrates. (The actual 2015 average of the top batters was .322. That said, a 32% rate is VERY GOOD!) True, we do need to get up to the plate, but I think perhaps more importantly is framing our success.

Who ever came up with these unwritten rules about the need to win all of the time, and even to have more victories than failures? Perhaps it’s innate, or perhaps it’s driven into the culture through the grading system in childhood and via little league titles, dancing recital titles, music “chairs,” etc. All said, a 68% failure rate (I prefer “miss rate”) may be just what we need to reframe our success.

Let me be clear, I am not one of the parents who feels every kid should get a trophy or a blue ribbon. In fact, I think we do a huge disservice to our children and ourselves when we do so.  I do however believe that succeeding in life is better defined by baseball percentages than being the top of the class/team (insert your favorite blue ribbon goal).

Here’s why:

As the world accelerates (as we talked about last week), we need to be prepared to test and learn quickly. While our parents and grandparents generally worked at a company for their entire career, today’s world will almost certainly mean multiple jobs and multiple required skill sets. In order to find out where you excel, getting up to bat is important.   It really doesn’t matter your age, there is so much that life has to offer if you are willing to step up to the plate and give it a try and realize success can be measured in many ways.

“There’s only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.” (Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox “The Greatest Hitter who Ever Lived” self-proclaimed, but one of the best for sure!)

While I don’t love Mr. Williams’ “get mad” comments, I totally can feel that vibe. We do need to instill a BIT OF PASSION behind our work and personal goals and desires. Today, I hope you’ll give some thought to where you need to GET UP TO BAT…

Try a new restaurant or a food you’ve never liked before

Explore a new city, near or far… Fort Scott anyone?

Try a new hobby… grab the ingredients for that recipe you’ve been wanting to try …

Schedule that lunch you’ve been avoiding…

Sign up for that class…

Ask that person you admire to mentor you…

Go be a MENTOR to someone in your community you know could use your inspiration…

Heck, change your whole career… (after prayer and discernment of course…)

This sucks… The reason why we need to call out bad days

Okay let’s be honest today. Some moments, some days – and it seems some months – just aren’t what we “had in mind.”

You know the internal narrative… “I didn’t sign up for this (fill in the blank…) life, relationship, job, health condition, weather, home repair, increased rent,” you name it. We all know it’s inevitable to have these moments, so I just thought we should call it out and and consider what we can do with moments like this.

If we are in the business of creating a life of excellence, of serving others and ourselves well, we must acknowledge, learn and move on.

As I approach 50 years, I would say all three are important and all three are a state of mind. We truly need to claim the rainy day that dampened the party and also the “all out” chaos moments. We then make a decision about whether we’re going to allow those times to own us or if we are going to just smile and realize life is giving us a gift. A gift of reserving our energy, a gift of a lesson, a gift of grace under pressure.

As you go through your week, I hope that you will realize it’s all part of getting to the point of true joy. We mix the good and the bad and the great and the “this plain sucks,” and then miraculously it weaves into this beautiful life that we have been given to bless others and create an amazing world.

Rewind: Lessons from the Farm

(Photo Credit: Pinterest)

(This is a partial throw back post to one from May 2016. Enjoy, friends!)

If you have any experience in farming, you know that while this image looks AMAZING, it didn’t get that way without a ton of hard work and investment.

Our theme this time last year started with the idea of “bold faith,” so much so that you would “bet the farm,” so to speak. That got me thinking about a life of excellence and how farmers really are pretty much the best of the best in demonstrating the value of hard work – among other things.

I had the opportunity to grow up around a farm thanks to my grandparents, and I can tell you two things:

  1. It is HARD WORK. PERIOD.
  2. Riding on the back of a truck while they are baling hay is not for the faint of heart. Snakes literally jump up while the ground gets pulled up and out! That part wasn’t a ton of fun, but I do recall summer “pool time” in the cow feeding trough! Hey, you gotta do what you can to have fun in Jasper, Mo.!

The lessons on the farm are too many to count, but here are a few that I feel really inspired by (with the help of Jeremie Kubicek. Maybe they’ll help you, too.

  • Lesson 1: BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION – Healthy crops come from healthy topsoil. This is true in business and life. YOU MUST HAVE A CLEAR DIRECTION and GROWTH PLAN. If you don’t have one, today’s the day!
  • Lesson 2: POUR INTO THE FIELD – Farmers fertilize their fields and invest in the best products to ensure a healthy outcome. In life, we must “pour” into our children, our calling (work), our friends, etc. We can’t expect friendships to develop, careers to grow and children and grandchildren to excel without fertilization! Are there any key areas you need to “pour into” in your life?
  • Lesson 3: ELIMINATE THE WEEDS! – I love this one. For farmers, weeds choke the life out of the crops and damage the potential harvest. WOW – isn’t this one so true for all of us? We must weed out the negative thoughts, habits and sometimes even people from our lives that are holding us back! What do you need to “weed out” today?

Make it a great one!

What if … Today I ….

(Photo Creds: We Heart it)

If you are in the workplace and have anything to do with marketing, you might follow Seth Godin.

He has daily, short blogs that offer up simple ideas on pushing you to the next level in creativity. His recent post caught my attention, and my mind took it another direction. His title, “Three simple and difficult steps” offered this:

  1. Get Smarter. Hurry. (Technology and life is moving fast)
  2. Solve interesting problems.
  3. Care. More.

His thinking was that most people do one of these, but what would happen if you became the type of person and does all three? You might add leverage and value and ultimately choices to your life.

I thought it was good, but here’s where my mind went with it…

What if today we set a goal to acccomplish something that really impacted our life/world? What if today was the day that we did not operate our daily routine, but instead choose to take a new route to work, craft a personal mission statement outlining what we’d love to do right now, and set forth a plan to make it so?

One day can be so impactful, yet we often let our days become routine and settle in. I like settling in, but I LOVE feeling energized and like I’m really doing something important. That one is much better! How about you?

What can you do today to UP YOUR LEVERAGE? To get smarter, or change paths or to just be a part of a nicer and better world?  My guess is that we can ALL DO SOMETHING.

#MarchMadness

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

March Madness officially starts TODAY.

The NCAA Basketball tournament dominates the next few weeks for many people. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but it’s so much fun to see people get excited about watching their teams play out their dreams. Here are a few insights on why this time of the year is both magical and “mad:”

  • It seems almost everyone joins the fun: Even if you don’t know a thing about basketball, many people jump on the bandwagon and complete a bracket in an attempt to claim the guessing-the-most-wins prize. Some pick by colors (ahem – that’s me), mascots, season records, and of course there are those who actually know what team could win based on solid criteria. Regardless, it’s a ton of fun!
  • “Scratching your way to the top:” Watching teams come back from a 20-point deficit with five minutes left always leaves me thinking the refs must have their back. Anyone who is a KU fan remembers the 2008 series and Mario Chalmer’s infamous 3-point shot to win the game, after KU shocked the nation with overcoming a 9-point deficit with two minutes on the clock. It’s that kind of drama that makes someone who normally doesn’t care join in around the TV appreciate the ENERGY and VICTORY.
  • EVERYONE HAS A CHANCE – CINDERELLA STORIES: This is the BEST. For a few weeks in March, any team can show up and show off. It’s fun to watch the magic Cinderella videos online, or SportsCenter.  We’ve seen names such as Butler, Wichita State and Davidson come from seemingly nowhere and make an amazing RUN FOR THE BIG WIN.

I hope you’ll spend some time over the next few weeks getting wrapped up in the “MADNESS,” all the while remembering that you also ALWAYS have a chance at achieving the CINDERELLA STORY of your own making! It takes GRIT, PASSION and HARD WORK, but the VICTORY is like none other! Enjoy your weekend!

Don’t give up – Chasing life’s victories

(Photo creds: My iPhone and the great capitol city of Austin, Texas)

How fun is the graffiti on the bridge? PAC-MAN! I love PAC-MAN, especially the Mrs. PAC-MAN version.

I never thought about the words the artist wrote next to it in this context. Clearly, the idea really grabbed my attention. NEVER GIVE UP! OF COURSE. Keep throwing in the quarters and eventually you’ll learn to navigate that puzzle, eat up the ghosts, get some bonuses along the way and then take your well deserved VICTORY LAP! What a terrific metaphor for life. Sure, we have to “power up” each day and work hard, and we also might get eaten alive, like in the game, but we can always start fresh. And if we keep at it, we will be victorious.

I was lucky enough to randomly get a runner in the photo and if you know her, tell her she’s a bad ass. I am NOT a runner but I LOVE the idea of it. Doesn’t she look amazing, perfect ponytail and all?

That alone is a great example for this message. Our health and general discipline around sticking with the “chase” in this area of life. I personally have a hard time on consistency in eating healthy. It’s a struggle and a daily choice. Why don’t I want to give up? Three reasons…

  • Energy and endurance (I’d love to keep up with some sweet grandbabies some day)
  • Physical and mental health, so that I actually enjoy my life and am able to conquer my purpose full on.
  • For those I love…

I could give so many examples of the proverbial chase… Career challenges, financial goals, etc., but you get the idea. My friends, DON’T GIVE UP! Throw another quarter in and show up and stand tall when receiving your VICTORY MEDAL. In whatever of life’s areas you needed to hear this, I’m cheering you on!

What stories do you want to tell and create?

(Photo Creds: We Heart It. I’d love to give further credit for the photo, but the app doesn’t give details… folks, I know this is a professional photo and I give full credit.)

I am a total sucker for award shows, especially the speeches. Speaking from the heart… those are the ones I love. If you joined me watching the Oscars on Sunday evening there were many. The humble and selfless speeches were plentiful and endearing. My favorite was Viola Davis’ speech for the best supporting actress win for her role in Fences. I have not seen it, but will.

Viola’s words captured the audience as we hung on to her words. She commanded the audience to listen and gave the “academy” a great window into why they selected her for this award.

What stood out to me, was this tag line. It was the crux of her speech, sharing that she wished to tell the stories of the past – of the dreamers who died too soon, people who fell in love and lost, so to speak. What a worthy question for us all.

What kind of stories do you want to tell?

With our ONE LIFE, we  have this opportunity to tell and live out really cool stories. To reach into the past as Viola shared, or to CREATE A NARRATIVE ALL OUR OWN – Steve Jobs… Oprah… just a few potential examples.

I love to learn from the past and to be completely overwhelmed by the minds and lives of those in history. I equally love to watch the modern day world take on building on our world’s greatness. I think I want to take my place on the CREATING part. To come up with a new story. One that carves a new path and changes lives for the better.

Did you have a favorite part of the Oscars? (Let’s for sure talk about that ending… wow… live TV is terrific.)