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Grow & Scale A Business That Will Set You Free
About That Nagging Feeling
You’re not imagining it.
You’re not fabricating it.
It’s real.
That yearning.
That sense that there’s more.
More that you’re meant for.
More that you’re supposed to do.
More.
The more that will fulfill those deepest longings of your heart.
You’re not exactly sure what it is.
Yet.
It calls you.
Nags you even.
In the quiet of the day; in the darkness of the night.
It’s there.
Whispering.
You want the nagging to go away; you tell it to go away.
Because.
You’re successful.
You have everything.
You’ve made it.
You have more than enough.
You should be satisfied.
Grateful even.
And you are grateful.
But that voice.
Calling you.
To create anew. To begin again.
It won’t go away.
It will never go away.
Because it’s the Creator Spirit within you.
Listen.
Listen to those longings of your heart.
Listen and begin.
There Will Be Tigers
“I’m going to stop working in five years,” Peter said. “After I’ve finished paying for my son’s law school tuition.” (This after Peter told me that the average lifespan of a trial lawyer is 57. Peter, a trial lawyer, was 55.)
“I’m going to start the fitness program as soon as my son starts kindergarten.”
“I’m going to go back for my degree when my youngest is out of college.”
“We’re going to take the trip to France right after I finish the next project.”
“I can’t take time off this year; we’re down a staff member.”
“If the house didn’t need painting this year, we’d get away to the Cape.”
“If I could just find a new job and a fresh place to live, I could get out of this crappy relationship.” (This more than six months after we first had this conversation.)
“Before I do the product launch, I need to take the copywriting course and learn SEO.”
“I’m going to finish the book (really I am), but right now I just don’t have the time.”
As a coach, I hear every story there is about why it is that now is not the right time, the auspicious time, the convenient time to do what we feel called to do, drawn to do, really want to do; to do what makes our hearts sing, our spirits soar.
Perhaps out of fear (of success or failure), or convention (what will people think?) or inertia or resistance, we create (artificial) barriers to the lives we really want to live; we imagine forces that must be fought and overcome before we do what really makes us happy. We imagine tigers that must be slain.
I love that old Buddhist story of the monk who is being chased through the jungle by tigers. He comes to the edge of a cliff as the tigers close in behind him. A hundred feet below, six more tigers claw at the base. The monk jumps from the cliff and on his way down grabs for a vine to stop himself. As he hangs by the vine, he sees a mouse gnawing at it. And just in that moment, he spies a fresh ripe strawberry growing out from the cliff face. The monk plucks the strawberry, tastes it and revels in its sweetness. ”My how good this is,” he says.
Here is the truth: Now is all we have. Now is the only moment in which we can create the lives we want to live.
As I write in Journeys, “dreams delayed are dreams denied.”
When we defer the call of our souls, we get angry and sad and bitter and resentful.
And the reality is, a step in the direction of our dreams usually doesn’t require a whole lot of time or a ton of resources or monumental change. We don’t need to throw the baby (or the husband) out with the bathwater. The step forward can be a tiny one.
And then another.
Do what you’ve always dreamed of doing.
Do it now.
There is no time to waste.
There will always be tigers.
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When you’re ready to banish the tigers and create something new, let’s talk. Email me: walt@walthampton.com
The Boring Queen
I’m not a monarchist.
I’m not a Brit.
But I mourn the loss of Queen Elizabeth.
Because she was boring.
Stability isn’t flashy or sexy.
And it’s rare.
But it’s a key attribute of effective leadership.
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We help leaders lead well. Email me. Let’s talk about how we can serve you and your senior team.
And stop by for a visit at: https://summit-success.com/
Become A Control Freak
Ok people, it’s done.
Summer’s over. The vacation’s behind you. No more lazy lunches. No more casual Fridays.
It’s time to put away the Dockers… and the swimmies. It’s time to get back to it.
Fall is here. Time to get busy; time to get serious.
No more leisure, no more playtime.
It’s time for work.
Uhhh, wait a minute: I object. I don’t want to give up playtime!
It is a busy time of year. But perhaps we can take some of summer with us?
In summer, it seems, time is more expansive; the rules more flexible; the boundaries softer.
And then September comes and – maybe it’s a holdover from going back to school – it seems like the time for fun is over.
We move back into our busy lives, our schedules chock full, shuttling around the kids, out to soccer games and swim practices, with evening meetings, volunteer activities and board commitments.
Many of my coaching clients feel like they’re moving back into the forest fire armed only with their squirt guns; their lives turned into an out-of-control carnival game of whack-a-mole. Reacting endlessly, and breathlessly, to the urgent.
Never really getting to what is really, truly the important in their lives.
And summer slips silently into the rear view mirror with perhaps some vague hope for respite and reprieve on some distant unencumbered weekend… or maybe in February on that “vacation.”
There is a different way.
But it requires that you become a control freak.
That’s right, a control freak: someone who takes control of their lives!
No one else is gonna do it for you. You’ve gotta do it for yourself.
And this means that you need a bit of courage and audacity.
I know. I live it too. Bombarded by unceasing demands and expectations in every area of our lives. Inundated by inputs. Juggling multiple modalities of communication. Over committed and suffused with the anxiety of dropping the ball.
But here’s the truth: the in-box will always be full. None of us will ever get it all done. If you died tomorrow, you’d be replaced.
So why not pay attention to what truly matters?
People ask me how it is that I take so much time away traveling and adventuring. The answer: it’s a choice.
Last year, I took 13 weeks off. There were no disasters. No one missed me. The world went on.
And, damn, it was fun.
So here are some practices to consider before September gets too crazy:
- Decide what really, really matters to you. Spend time on that. Get rid of the rest.
- Get really good at saying no; if you find yourself saying you “should” do something, you probably shouldn’t.
- Carve out time for yourself – every single day. No one else is going to do it for you.
- Get up an hour early and enjoy the quiet. Use it to read and write and meditate and create.
- Plan your weeks; and plan each day; actually schedule in the time for the things that matter most to you.
- Turn off the TV at night and focus on the life you really want.
Here’s the scoop: at the end of our lives, no one is going to wish they spent more time in the office, billed more hours, sold more product, sat on more boards, went to more PTO meetings, or volunteered for more committees. It won’t matter whether you went to one more network group, whether your Facebook status was up to date, or whether you were well LinkedIn. What will matter will be the experiences you have had, the love you have shared, the lives you have touched.
What will matter will be whether you showed up in each and every moment to know the fullness and the joy of your life.
What will matter is whether you have lived without regret.
For that to happen, you’ll need to become a control freak.
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Ready for work that sets you free? Let’s talk! Email me: walt@walthampton.com
And stop by for a visit at: https://summit-success.com/
Labor On
We just celebrated Labor Day in the United States: A celebration of work and workers; an opportunity to honor labor; the chance to celebrate the fulfillment of our effort.
Or perhaps, more realistically, an escape from tedium; a long weekend away from the insanity of the office; with a beer… or two; and burgers and dogs on the grill.
Because, you see, nearly 80% of folks are unfulfilled in their work. (More than 90% among my lawyer colleagues.) Employee engagement worldwide, that is a worker’s investment in his or her employer’s vision and mission, stands at 13%, meaning 87% of folks couldn’t really give a damn about what their company is trying to achieve. (And, by the way, employers beware: engagement is correlated directly with your bottom line.)
Which is terrible: Because our work is the highest expression of who we are in the world. Our work is the opportunity to serve in the world; to share with the world those gifts and talents that are uniquely ours to share.
Our work takes up the majority of our waking hours. It takes us away from our homes and our families. It requires our attentions and focus; our blood, sweat and tears. And at the end of the day, if it is devoid of meaning, we are left empty and depleted and despairing.
Our work is not the entirety of our being; and yet it is a huge part of who we are.
“Isn’t work supposed to be a grind?” my young career-coaching client asked.
“No!” I yelled into the phone. “It’s not.”
It’s supposed to be rich and full and joyous. Not without stress or worry; not without effort. But filled with meaning and purpose and deep satisfaction.
Your work should be fun; your work should make you happy.
Steve Jobs said, “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something… .”
If you find yourself filled with dread on Sunday night, then what you’re doing isn’t working. If you’re not waking up most days excited and on fire about your work, then you need to do something different.
Because when you’re in the flow, when you lose track of time, when your Monday feels as awesome as your Friday… that’s when you know you have the work and life you love. You deserve that; the world deserves that.
Because your work should be a Labor of Love.
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If your work isn’t lighting you up, we should definitely talk. Email me: walt@walthampton.com
And stop by for a visit at: https://summit-success.com/
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