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Transformation Takes Works But Is Rarely Planned.
Sponsored by CrisDental
When I go to a business/leadership conference, walking away does two things for me.
One, I find strategies to move me ahead and methods to help change the way I look at myself and what I do.
But the second thing that happens is I realize how much success follows hard work and what some might see as luck.
Mike Rowe was one of the speakers this week.
I love the guy.
He’s raw, talented and so real.
His door into the industry was actually singing opera.
He’d never sung operate before but needed an actors union card and singing was the easiest way to get it.
Then he heard about tryouts for this new program where you stand there and sell products on television for hours at a time.
This video is the story of his tryout.
He was asked to sell a pencil.
Sometimes at age 64 I feel a bit odd being at a leadership conference.
Oh, I’m not the oldest guy here but it’s easy, in the world we live in, to feel like at 64 I should be hanging it up.
In my desire to “not let the old man in” I don’t want to stop work completely.
I have things I still want to do.
I learned many things this week including how to write a better, more relational email. I tend to be pretty straight forward which doesn’t always lend itself to warm and fuzzy.
It matters.
I learned that thousands of other business people wake up in the middle of the night with the same terror I have, “is this gonna work?”
But the part of the conference that touched me deeply was the talk with Dr John Delony.
He’s an expert on mental health and wellness.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in “what is success?”
You hit a goal and immediately you need another, or do we?
When is enough, enough?
I think I need to give myself a break from the madness.
I get so lost in doing I forget to live.
Life is passing me by as I claw and scrape to be more successful.
Leaving a career at 50, losing a race for public office and creating a business, create a narrative that can play with your mind.
The key point John made was Divorce your identity from your work.
Wow, now that’s a challenge for me.
Questions I need to ask myself: Am I enjoying and investing in things that matter?
Who is the monster I’m trying to please?
What about my backstory is causing me to create a narrative that is inaccurate and causing me to race with rats?
Yeh, I’m 64 and I’m not done serving.
I’m not ready nor do I think it’s time to slip into retirement.
I honestly don’t think I’ll ever retire completely.
I’m not a rocking-chair-on-the-front-porch kind of guy.
But what about that traveling podcast idea Kathy and I have been talking about?
You know, get a Sprinter Van, make a traveling podcast studio, take it on the road and introduce you to other American’s.
What about more stories on issues that need to be brought out such as the “Truth About Timber Series” or video’s highlighting the need for more vocational workers and get the focus off “college is right for everyone”.
I don’t know.What I do understand is God is not finished with me just yet.
There are too many people I still haven’t met.
There are too many surprises He has yet to shock me with.
I’m only 64, it’s not like I’m as old as Moses. LOL
