Focusing and reflecting is a tough thing for me some, much, most, of the time. I’m not the type to focus very well. I love that red block; be quick, be prepared, be gone! “Back-in-the-day” when I was still agile and willing to suffer more self-inflicted pain than I am today, I loved barefoot waterskiing….still do, but the pain out-weighs the urge. I’d be scurrying along, no skis, at 47 mph rope and have some of the strangest thoughts. My ability to focus was pathetic and thus, I took some incredibly hard falls. What was possibly the last of such falls was 3, maybe 4 years ago. Cathy saw it (I was wanting to show off for my woman!!! :-). Literally, I thought I’d broken both arms and my face. These falls are so fast you can’t even close your eyes and your eyelids get rolled back to the point you have to reach up and fix them.
Obviously, I should have been paying attention to keeping my toes pointed up, and my knees bent, and my eyes on the top of the windshield…but nope, I was thinking about people watching and I needed to look good. And it was an incredible fall. I understand the sound, when my hands, forearms, and face slapped the water, was like a rifle shot. It was incredible. But then….you can’t waste a crowd! Right??!!
(Ok…deep breath. Whoa! Did I just hear a barefooter on the water?…wow, no wind, there’s dust on the water!!)
(Focus..deep breaths.)
(Ok, I’m fine, for now…concentrate) Today and tomorrow, I need to be sure I’m focusing on what is important and not on looking good. I understand that “looking good” can be the result of the importance, and can even drive us to do the basics well, but style points only represent 20% of the score and without the basics, we don’t get the style, and looking good is way too temporal.
I’m continuing to focus on our Mission and our Values. I’m focusing on how we live those out through people, systems, and strategies. This has been my focus for months, even years, and I am hopefully learning how to live this out better than before. If I appear intense, that’s why. Everything I do is directed towards that purpose.
Ok, new thought. Bryon shared some great news with me yesterday afternoon. I was in the rear kitchen…needing coffee (I quit the Crown a few years ago). And there was no coffee, I was feeling incredibly irritable, Paul was trying to talk to me about something, I was silently praying that I could pay attention, and Mr. Cunningham popped his head in. If you don’t know Bryon very well, he’s a reporter and I can tell when he has something good to talk about. There’s a certain skip and sway. He was looking good! And I forgot about the coffee….
Don’t miss the 1006,
Toes up, knees bent, eyes on top of the windshield…
Danny
Remembering the trip, learning by changing, and striving for the vision.
The Theology of Work: Moving From Study to Practice
What in the world is Inside-the-Box Success?
Remember the scene in Apollo 13, after the infamous Houston - we've had a problem!, when the group of scientists and techs were in a room with a very large table and they had a bunch of stuff thrown on the table to FIX the problem with?
That is Inside-the-Box Success at its best. Knowing the problem and what you have to work with. Wishing you had something else, but succeeding with what you have!
It is about never giving up, and about succeeding with where you are. It is also about not wishing for something to be better, or about having a think outside the box - the grass is greener on the other side of the fence - if only I had.....
Actually, and you can read more about this herein, this is all about being more of a good follower, than a good leader. Leadership is way over rated and this is from experience, not just an opinion. Yet, the better follower I am, the more I find that I'm getting better results.
When I began this blog in early 2008 I had a simple agenda; let people within our company know more about what was going on. The agenda has changed and it is now a means for me to reflect on those changes and what I've learned and continue to learn. We, along with the rest of the mortgage industry have had our "whoes;" some due to what's been imposed on us, other self-inflicted.
Hopefully, I've learned a lot and will use this knowledge to change. I'm patiently working each day to learn where I'm going with my life, and my business. Still plenty of hurdles and slamming doors to deal with, but what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger. There are alot of opportunities out there for the survivors and I just need to remember that changes need to be s l o w .
Besides, if it does kill me, I'll be in heaven!
To that end....
God Bless, Danny
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A bit more about the blog.......These postings are not very well edited, so please be gracious in the critique.
In the beginning, many of the postings build from, or are a continuation of, a previous posting. At times a scenario I am discussing in one is not played out in another due to some event that has happened. So, to get the best flow, insure you are reading in chronological order, yet please understand this is not meant to be a journal of events.
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