To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Growth mind

Be the champion you are

Are you vibing being a champion today? Do you realize that you are powerful beyond measure? Are you focusing your thoughts on the good, the helpful, the kind, the strong?

You might want to sit with this well-known quote a bit today: “We are the stories we tell ourselves.” Are those stories epic in the best way possible? Are you the superhero you should be?

One of my dear friends and a colleague “owns” the Wonder Woman character. Yep, she claimed the nick name and I love it! She shows up every day speaking that truth to herself, and you know what… she is Wonder Woman. To me, that means beyond helpful, always looking out for others, always on a mission to lift up the energy around her and shine a light in dark places.

Today and this week and this month and this year, let us all own being a champion… Let’s show up for both ourselves and for those around us. Let us tell ourselves stories that are rich in positivity, in laughter, in love and in handling obstacles with power and grace.

You my friend are a champion indeed!

What deserves your highest honor?

Honor. It’s one of the best words on the planet. It’s what we really do to serve well. But, serving ourselves well is also an important part of that.

This post can go in many directions…

Who have I not honored as much as I should have this year? Someone I really want to honor every day, but for some reason life has taken hold and I haven’t done so. Perhaps someone I know I want in my life indefinitely.

What have I not been honoring? Is it my attention to community service? Or could it be a distant friend that – although you don’t need to see each other weekly to know you are there for one another – you really want to spend more time with. It could be all manner of things: maintenance needed on your home or car, for example. What is it that requires your attention?

But back to where we started this post. What about how you honor yourself? This message is strong. Attention goes where energy flows, after all.

How can we focus on personal wellness? Some members of my team were having a “water” contest on Monday. I thought that was a great start. What about taking that next call outside while walking? Healthier choices when ordering food? Heck, maybe you combine a couple of these broader ideas and get moving with an old friend… or even get moving with some spring cleaning. I know my garage is a winter mess.

If you would like some professional input on all things wellness, I highly recommend Dr. Michelle Robin. Her podcast, books, etc. are terrific places to start because they are easy, practical and profound.

I hope you all are having a fantastic week! Let’s wrap it strong and go out with high honor for all those people, places or things, that are so important in our lives.

Sometimes renovation requires demolition

Life is a fun challenge. We all have the opportunity to be the architects and designers of a life well-lived.

What type of life do you want? What makes you feel like you’ve achieved true “wellness?” What needs to happen for you to achieve your purpose? To make sure you are moving forward in those key areas that sometimes show up in these types of conversations – relationships, career, school, spiritual, financial, physical and emotional wellbeing?

The above is a powerful message. What areas need to be completely dismantled? That’s a hard question. Demolition only seems to look good when Chip and Joanna, the team from Fixer Upper, are involved. Can it even be fun?

I believe this statement is true. Sometimes we are on the wrong path… our diets are off track, our spiritual practices are lacking, we are spending too much money on the wrong things, our relationships are not filling us up, and we have some unaddressed emotional challenges.

What is so cool about this idea is that no matter if partial or full on demolition is needed, you have the ability to create an amazing, new space that lights up your life. That opportunity is just on the other side of the decision to act. Now that I can get excited about. How about you?

Let’s make it a STRONG week!

Live in the arena

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Want to level up your personal growth? Find a bit over an hour, log into Netflix and be prepared to actively take notes. You will laugh, you will nod in understanding and you will be changed. In her Netflix special, Dr. Brene Brown, says something to the tune of “there is my life before this quote (above) and my life after.” I could say the same thing about this show. Incredible.

She talks about “engineering smallness” in her life because of her fear to step into her own power and play big. (Frankly, that’s its own headline!)

She shares incredible data that proves that if we are to achieve anything – from career success to love – we will indeed fall, get our asses kicked, and experience heartbreak. (Ouch!)

She talks about being hard-wired for belonging, and our need to speak our truth and not betray ourselves for other people.

She educates about the need for us to be vulnerable…even in the workplace. Especially if we are to develop inclusivity, equity and diversity and have uncomfortable conversations that ultimately have the power to bring us to unity. (Folks… we need to be vulnerable… this is critical for our generation.)

That, my friends, encompasses only about 5 percent of the content. I truly hope that you will make it a priority to step into this great message. And if you’ve already caught her Netflix special, I’d love to hear about your takeaways!

The “arena” can for sure be intimidating – scary even. The “arena” is also that place where we grow, thrive and shine like no other place. You all are champions my friends! Cheering you on always.

EXHALE – Getting to Fresh life and fresh thinking

Exhale (verb) – “She sat back and exhaled deeply.”

What a terrific thought! I attended a session in high school where we learned to “breathe in any stresses” that we were experiencing, and then “breathe them out.” Then we “breathed in only good and positive thoughts.” It was powerful, and I often still use that tool. Today, we call this (in part) meditation, and it’s something we all should concentrate on developing.

If you are like me, sometimes you are driving down the highway with a list of challenges, ideas and thoughts in your head. Some are good, some not so much. Becoming aware of this and learning to breathe through it can and will be a game changer for your mental (and ultimately physical) health.

What is also really cool, is that if you can remember this, you will find your mind has more time for clear thinking, which brings you to innovation and the ability to create. With spring in play, what a great time to take it all in – the sunnier days, the blooming flowers and the overall essence of fresh life and fresh thinking.

I’m cheering you on… EXHALE!

Go deep: We need to build our root system

Throwback from 2017- some thoughts as you wrap up your week strong!

If you’ve ever stood under a redwood tree, you know that their height is something magnificent. And yet, the extent of their root system is shockingly not deep at 6-12 feet. So, how do we account for the crazy growth, with many reaching 300 feet tall? (The tallest pine measures in at 268 by comparison.)

“Redwoods create the strength to withstand powerful winds and floods by extending their roots more than 50 feet from the trunk and living in groves where their roots can intertwine.”

Perfect! Another cool illustration for how important going deep in your relationships is to your ability to grow and optimize your gifts. Of course, I love this – and so should you!

“Community” is what allows us to live a joy-filled life. (“Community” is also defined as families, friendship groups, circles, tribes, colleagues… you get my drift.)

To serve well, it is almost required that we are encouraged, held accountable and ultimately pushed toward our best self. For most of human history, this has been a normal part of life, starting out with the earliest Native American tribes and, for my generation, playing kickball in the street until well after the sun went down. Today, many find themselves immersed in technology and other distractions. That seems almost too obvious to state but when the shoe fits… Heck, I don’t even like to get out of my car to go in the bank. God forbid I can’t take care of business on my phone or through a machine.

I like the idea of going deep. I need to work more at this. I’d love to achieve the greatness of a redwood grove… to lock arms together with some amazing people and establish root systems that allow us all to grow and flourish.

What do you NEED today?

So… what do YOU need today?

What will absolutely brighten your day?

Fill your soul? Lighten your load?

Spark a fire?

Ignite your creativity?

What would it take to go do that? What would you or someone else have to do to make that happen? Spring is all about fresh life, hope, joy… Our life is ours to create, to curate, and to actually live in abundantly!

Sounds easy, right? Maybe for some. But in case you are like me and struggle with this at first, I want to share a mind mapping exercise I use to make this happen each year.

I start by putting each of my life’s main categories (finance, career, family, spiritual etc.) on paper, then I develop 2-3 key action items for each one of them to ensure I achieve my personal goals or dreams. My new addition to this exercise today is asking: Where can I add joy, – or, what would brighten my days? – in each area? For example, instead of “spend more time with my family,” perhaps I could expand that to “embark on a Saturday road trip with my sister by the end of May.”

I’d love to hear your ideas!

Here’s to a great week and the best spring ever – let’s make it so!

“Life isn’t supposed to be hard… really?”

Have you ever heard this? I have heard the words spoken from many, and far too often it’s meant with the best intentions.

Most of you know I have a strong faith, but unfortunately some of those messages come most strongly from those who share that faith. “If God’s in it, it won’t be hard… If the job is too hard, the relationship too challenging, the deal on the house or car or whatever doesn’t work out just as you want… “It’s not meant to be.” After all, life isn’t supposed to be hard if we follow the plan set out for us, right? Hmmmm….

Maybe this non-truth resonates more the older I get, and the fact that my boys and their friends are getting older. Instead of this message, I want to shout from the mountaintops: “It’s going to be really hard! Anything worth it generally has a tall order of pain involved. Sometimes, there will be tears. But it WILL be worth it!”

Some things that came to mind:

  • College: Yep, pretty hard lessons – lots of fun, but lot’s of work. It was always the “tough professor,” however, that stood above the others.
  • First 10-20 years post-grad (adulting 101 and 201): Yep. Again, marriage was hard, learning how to deal with bosses in a new career, learning how to pay the bills, deal with a broken washer and unexpected expenses. Yep… check mark all of those…really hard.
  • 40+- aging parents (and so on): Again, hard. But how special is that time? And what a great opportunity.

I think we need to be careful what we share with one another and specifically how we encourage. Sure, I’m a positive person and I believe in all kinds of good. In fact, many may say I wear the rose-colored glasses – I’m deeply and innately positive. Perhaps that’s why I felt it should be me that points this out.

Let’s set each other up for success. Let’s not encourage one another to run away from the obstacle courses of life – even the ones that might bruise us. Let’s grab each other’s hands and help push, pull or whatever it takes to get through it, not only alive but on fire for life. It’s worth it – every single time.

The power of visualization

WOW! I love these inspirational messages from Instagram. I limit myself to 30 minutes a day right now on Insta, but I find it to be very inspirational for someone like me who takes things in best visually.

I like to think I do this, but I am honestly wondering as I write this if I do this in every area. For example, do I really walk out how I want to “show up” physically? As in, athletically speaking? My highest self? Ouch… I don’t think so. Maybe a “pretty good” version, but highest? Definitely not.

Let’s pull the plane up a bit and back into the question of what exactly does your highest self look like?

If I were hitting my stride in full force, what would my highest self look like on an ideal day? My wake up time? Meals? Physical activity? Productivity? Would I design art? Write something breathtaking? Breathe deeply and eat nutritious and beautiful meals? Who would I surround myself with? How would I elevate my mind? Would I be reading classic literature or listening to stunning music?

This is such a worthwhile question.

I hope you will not only visualize your highest self, but write out what that looks like and move ever closer to that each and every day.

So much love for you all. Thank you for reading!

“A soul generated by love” – Wrapping up Black History Month

I didn’t want the month to end without once again highlighting Black History Month.

I feel like our country is really starting to take hold of the idea that we need to become more educated on the issues we face by not being aware of the issues of our past. There are so many new authors really taking on this subject in a powerful way.* If we can all make a decision to do our part in truly diving into history and what it means to us today, I can imagine a world that is stronger and more beautiful. The very idea of this blog is to provide insights that might help us all “level up” and really serve each other well. From my perspective, serving starts by understanding and then by coming alongside all people, in whatever way they need, to make our world better.

The quote in the picture above came from Martin Luther King Jr’s last sermon before he was assassinated. He continued to say:

“…You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the Second Theory of thermodynamics and physics to serve. You only need a heart full of gratitude. A soul generated by love.”

It’s no surprise that the month of “love” is also Black History month. Let us all remember that love has the power to overcome all challenges we face. We can choose to use that love to put forth actions that bring us a life and world of service and unity. Now, I can get down right joyful about that thought!

*If you’d like to jump into some good, easy reading around this topic, I’d highly recommend, “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World made for Whiteness,” by Austin Channing Brown. I have several others that I’ve found quite helpful on my personal journey. Please feel free to message me if you are interested.