LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble." Mahatma Gandhi

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This month we're looking at these words, YES and NO. Powerful words with some great prompts, challenges and reminders around them. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

We all learn the lesson that Gandhi is talking about in this quote. For some of us, it's taken a long time, but as we grow in confidence and experience, we draw on that to make better decisions.

When I was just starting out, I said YES to everything. I don't know if it was because I wanted to please everyone, or if it was because I wanted to do everything, I just said YES to everything, and then I began to realize that I couldn't continue at the pace that a "constant yes" requires, so I began to say no to things.

A lifelong mentor of mine, Jim Burns, while at a leaders training event, I remember when he had all of us practice saying NO out loud. His point was that for many of us, we didn't know how to say NO. He went on to share this quote that I attribute him with:

"If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy".

As a young leader, for some reason that resonated with me, and I began to say NO with confidence. I'm not sure if I was saying no from the "deepest conviction" that Gandhi talks about, but little by little, I began to shift my mindset.

This is what I remember feeling as I shifted my availability:

• I felt EMPOWERED. I had a choice, and I didn't have to say yes to everything. My choice and interest mattered.

• I felt FREEDOM. I wasn't a slave to a bunch of things that I had agreed to, and I could learn to make better choices.

• I felt PROTECTED. As my convictions grew and my experience supported that, I was making decisions in alignment with my purpose, my role and my responsibility.

• I felt CONTROL. I quit blaming others and took responsibility for each and every decision. I was forced to think more deeply about each of them.

Have you thought about the convictions you have that help to drive every decision you make? What are those?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The oldest, shortest words - 'yes' and 'no' - are those which require the most thought." Pythagoras

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This month we're looking at these words, YES and NO. Powerful words with some great prompts, challenges and reminders around them. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

I don't know about you, but from my perspective, the words YES and NO are often the words I most quickly respond with because they are short and simple words.

Pythagoras pushes us to think about these words, emphasizing that we should only use these words with careful consideration and thoughtfulness, rather than our impulsive nature which doesn't require much thinking.

I've learned a lot about saying YES and NO. I've found myself in situations where I'm asking the question, "How did I get here?" And honestly, as I look back, it's a series of decisions that I made without thinking, without "careful consideration".

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 5 while teaching, he says in verse 37: "But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." He's talking about us keeping our word, but the simplicity of his challenge is clear: YES and NO Matter!

I remember a situation many, many years ago where I had agreed to do something without much thought. I agreed to speak to a group of junior high students, on a boat, cruising around Catalina Island in Southern California. I guarantee that when I said YES, I was thinking about living on a boat for 3 days, as well as the $250 honorarium check I was earning (this was significant in my life at the time).

What I didn't think about was this...

• I was on the boat with 60 Junior High Students... for 3 days!

• My speaking part was 30 minutes a day... the rest of the time, I was with 60 Junior High Students... for 3 days!

• It was over my Birthday Weekend, and my wife had bought me tickets to a concert to surprise me (I hadn't mentioned the speaking gig)

• So while my wife and a friend enjoyed a great concert, on my birthday... I sat on a boat, with 60 junior high students, for 3 days.

Yes, this led to some reflection and the lesson was to THINK before responding with an immediate YES. Three Full Days....

Looking back, it's often easy to see impact of saying YES or NO. What do you do to "carefully consider" whether it's a YES or a NO?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"It is not forgivable to be highly efficient but ineffective." Tim Ferriss

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

Thanks for being on this journey with me over the past month as I've talked about RHYTHM and shared with you some of my journey. Thank you also to those who have reached out and shared your stories along the way. That's been encouraging to me. We're going to keep going, because surprisingly enough, I haven't arrived! There are still lessons to learn, so let's keep going....

There are a couple of final reminders I want to share with you that I'm talking to myself about.

I was listening to a question/answer podcast with Tim Ferris this past week, and in the midst of the conversation, he shared the thought that many of us focus on efficiencies instead of focusing on effectiveness. While I pulled this quote from the podcast, there are many people who talk about "effectiveness vs. efficiency" so today I'm just going to camp out here a little bit.

In Gary Kellers book, "The One Thing", he writes about the benefits of prioritizing a single task with a singular focus.

I'm a fan of the concept, although life is often much more complex, but the goal to focus on something that is a true priority and in accomplishing that one thing, it affects everything, is something that I've worked towards and aimed at.

Again, my problem is that I have "5 One Things" at a time, so even as I narrow them down, it's still a challenge to identify the most important.

The key reminder to me today is to focus on EFFECTIVENESS and not get lost in the system, the plan, the flow and the routines.

What is the One Thing that helps me to accomplish things that make a difference?

In my quest for re-discovering my RHYTHM, I come back to my desire to be effective and impactful on all levels vs. my work to have things all managed by discipline, habits and systems.

What's the ONE THING I can do today that will drive greater effectiveness towards the mission & vision of my life?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"Joy is not a season, it's a way of living." Kalley Heiligenthal

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

Thanks for being on this journey with me over the past month as I've talked about RHYTHM and shared with you some of my journey. Thank you also to those who have reached out and shared your stories along the way. That's been encouraging to me. We're going to keep going, because surprisingly enough, I haven't arrived! There are still lessons to learn, so let's keep going....

This past week, the word that has been rolling around in my head is simply the word JOY.

I love this definition: "A deep and abiding sense of happiness and contentment". That describes it really well. Webster defines it as: "a feeling of great pleasure or happiness that comes from success, good fortune, or a sense of well-being."

I love this quote because I often get caught up in the "seasons of life"... and I define these as a "busy season" or a "stressful season" or a "full season" or a "fun season" or whatever other words I choose.

Heiligenthal says it so simply: Joy isn't a season, it's life!

We've been talking about RHYTHM over the past number of weeks and I've shared with you honestly some of my journey, some of my questions and some of the process, and if I went back and read each of my posts, I'm sure somewhere I said something about "the season I'm going through".

Today, I simply choose JOY.

No matter what is going on around me, what is going on in me, what is coming out of me, I choose JOY.

I choose JOY because sometimes that's the last thing I want to respond with. Life is hard. There are twists and turns, surprises and challenges every day, but instead of responding instantly with despair, I choose to respond with JOY.

What would it look like in your life if you CHOSE JOY today, when things come at you? Especially the unexpected things…

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." Friedrich Nietzsche

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

Thanks for being on this journey with me over the past month as I've talked about RHYTHM and shared with you some of my journey. Thank you also to those who have reached out and shared your stories along the way. That's been encouraging to me. We're going to keep going, because surprisingly enough, I haven't arrived! There are still lessons to learn, so let's keep going....

I was listening to a podcast this past week and Bono, lead singer from the band U2 mentioned this quote. I stopped and wrote it down, then looked it up later.

Nietzsche, the German philosopher said this and while he pushed against a personal belief in God, this quote speaks clearly of God to me, so I wanted to dive into it.

Bono was talking about the idea of a "long obedience in the same direction" and I connected that to the conversation of RHYTHM. This speaks of discipline & intentionality, but it also addresses the idea of movement towards a goal.

Nietzsche then says: "There thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." That idea that in going the distance, there will not only be results, but there will be purpose. That's powerful.

Today, think about these 2 aspects of RHYTHM:

1) ARE YOU PLAYING THE LONG GAME?

Are you looking for more than short-term results? Are you looking forward?

2) IS YOUR PURSUIT OF RHYTHM CONNECTED TO YOUR PURPOSE?

How does your "life in rhythm" help you live more purposefully?

My personal quest to find my RHYTHM is 100% connected with my purpose in life. Rhythm helps me live in Purpose! What about you?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way." Keanu Reeves

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

Thanks for being on this journey with me over the past month as I've talked about RHYTHM and shared with you some of my journey. Thank you also to those who have reached out and shared your stories along the way. That's been encouraging to me. We're going to keep going, because surprisingly enough, I haven't arrived! There are still lessons to learn, so let's keep going....

This past week, I got in my "trusty truck", and was honestly heading to the gas station to fill up, and when I started the truck, I had these three lights flashing at me.... one was for gas (and if you know me, running low on gas is a rare occasion). The second light was a "check tire pressure" warning, and the third was a "maintenance required" light. I looked at that dashboard and just laughed out loud.

This wasn't just the dashboard of my truck, it was the dashboard of my life!

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The rhythm of life is intricate but orderly, tenacious but fragile. To keep that in mind is to build the key to survival." Shirley Hufstedler

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

This quote from Davis hit me today.

Often, when I'm in a funk, I revert to my "LISTS".

I love lists. I have to-do lists, I have goal lists, I have people lists, I have project lists. I find that when I write things down it helps me to remember them, and often just a simply "prompt" in a list is all I need.

This past week I wanted to send a gift to someone, so I just wrote in my list: SEND BOX. I looked at that for a few days, then sent it off, and checked it off my list.

There's nothing wrong with lists, but I realize that working my list doesn't get me back to RHYTHM. You can't power through a list to "get back in the groove". (I love that line from the quote.... groove!)

Rhythm is more than a list of things that you do on a regular basis...

• Rhythm is a place.

• Rhythm is a peace.

• Rhythm is a groove.

Rhythm is more than just a set of tasks that you need to accomplish, it's an overall feeling of being in the right place, in the correct state of mind, in the groove.

How can you tell when you're completely IN RHYTHM or completely OUT OF RHYTHM?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The rhythm of life is intricate but orderly, tenacious but fragile. To keep that in mind is to build the key to survival." Shirley Hufstedler

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I'm on a real-life journey to understand more about the "RHYTHM OF MY LIFE" and over the next number of weeks I want to drag you on this journey with me. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

I've appreciated a number of notes from people reading this post over the past 2 weeks. Some of you have committed to praying with me as I process through this, and many have shared that you're in a similar space. There is something very comforting in simply being reminded that "It's not just me!". Thank you for the encouragement and the support.

This conversation about RHYTHM is simply a journey. We'll never arrive, never completely master it, but it's a process. Hufstedler's quote above captures that idea in that it's a balancing act of taking all aspects of rhythm and holding them, learning from them and applying them. She says that this leads to survival, but I say it leads to a fuller life!

I have a rowing machine in my office. I purchased it during Covid when my local gym shut down, and I had been enjoying the rower.

Last week I jumped on it (after some time) and it just wasn't moving right. I was working hard and I thought I had just forgotten what the regular back and forth motion felt like, but after about 3 minutes of steady rowing, I stopped, and did a search on rowers and found that most likely, the chain on my rower just needed to be oiled. I applied some 3-in-ONE oil, and immediately the rower was smooth, moving easily, exactly as it was built to do.

It took just a little bit of oil to get that thing moving right again, but what a difference it made.

You can see the application....

What's the ONE THING that you can do that will help you find your rhythm again, that easy flow from one thing to the next? What aspect of maintenance will get you moving again?

Think back on your life, what has helped you find your healthy rhythms? Are you doing those things or avoiding them?