Rocks and hard places

Rocks and hard places are fairly negative places to get stuck between. They push and poke and hurt and bruise and if you hit them hard enough, break things. Two competing opportunities, two apparently equal paths to choose, two or three family pressures, a number of financial setbacks, a group of needs yet unmet, more commitments than you can meet, age and desire, wants and resources, needs and wishes - all can become hard places and rocks when they happen in tandem.

My sweet bride and I face this dilemma right now. She greatly prefers to live in Eastern Europe, while I greatly prefer living in Asia. A rock and a hard place. She wants (and has) location-specific work with face to face people involvement. I want (and have) work that I can do remotely and have a long reach across the world and can pinpoint specific projects and leaders and situations. A rock and a hard place. She is very accomplished in hard skills that make her unique in her working field. I have education and experience that makes me unique in my working field. A rock and a hard place.

So currently we are doing both/and and neither. I know, that sounds impossible, but we often accomplish that and more. But I am not sure it is sustainable because the rocks and the hard places are a damn sight tougher than our wills it seems. Having your cake and eating it too not only rarely happens, but its costly.

I am confident that you have faced a rock and a hard place situation(s), and am equally confident that you will face more in the future, just we have and will. A great deal of dialogue and compromise are required to navigate these rocks and hard places so that damage is minimal (or at least contained) and forward progress can be sustained.

Continuity and Action

Today has been one of those days, where I am more the student with a learning curve, than I am the leadership guru guy directing a meeting. Those are always the richest days!

The first lesson that I learned today is that action trumps qualifications and experience. Most of my life has been spent gaining qualifications and experience. and granted, I am good at what I do. But Jimmy and Megan taught me an important lesson today - action is superior to becoming overqualified to compensate for my occasional insecurities.

I met Jimmy last year, barely a Christian at all, freshly divorced, all at the tender age of 24! I was being called in as an emergency to head off a new disaster, he was planning to jump right into a second marriage! We had a number of good long talks and finally agreed that a slightly longer engagement than three months, (less than six months after his divorce) was a wise and prudent course of action. Of course there are a million other details here, but lets jump to the present in favor of saving some time. I met Mrs Jimmy, Megan, who is a sharp and sassy gal.

They are back in Asia, and have just signed a two year contract to teach at a school here in the heart of Asia. They would never meet the qualifications to work for my non-profit, The Leadership Development Group. Nor would they meet the basic qualification of any of the parent organizations that I have worked for in my adult life. But you know what, they just don't care. They have seen a need, and no matter how at risk they are as a couple, as Christians, as people - they have dove right in and committed themselves.

I know all the arguments, having made them myself many times, but there is something special about people of action. Action born not out of hard competencies or deep confidence or high qualifications. Action that is born out of a heart for the needy and the disadvantaged. We need more Jimmys and Megans in the world!

The second thing I learned today, is that a certain level of continuity is required to sustain significant relationships. I have written about Dunbar's number before, and that is a key factor related to HOW MANY relationships one can actually sustain. But the reality is, that if you don't keep a certain level of consistency and continuity going in a relationship, even if you haven't hit Dunbar's number yet, you still can't have a significant relationship with that person - the capacity may be present, but the effort hasn't been applied.

I had a meeting today with Adam. I like Adam. I see him 5-6 times a year. We enjoy one another. We have real potential to have a significant friendship that would benefit us both. But neither of us make the necessary effort between those times we see each other. The consequences of that failure is a stilted ineffective face to face time, where we meet more because we think we should, rather than out of any real synergy, connection or purpose. In fact Adam and I could quite possibly change this part of the world together — but we need to pay the price to make that happen.

Which brings us full circle to action again. What Adam and I need is more action together and more effort, in order to create something beautiful, innovate a high impact micro-enterprise, start a new ministry among the 20-somethings of Chiang Mai, change the world, or simply be better people because we listened to Nike in this case — just do it!

The center of things

The center of things is really important. Take for instance my back.  Its killing me! Every. Single. Movement. Hurts.  

Thats because the center of things, the spine right above your bottom, is the fulcrum of the body. No action can take place without involving that center of things.

Your heart.  It is another kind of center of things.  No devotion can happen.  No inspiration can occur.  The best and the hardest of life all pass through this center of things.  Most important here is your connection and relationship to the Living Savior

Your commitment. We are committed to many things, but not what we usually think we are committed to.  I see this all the time.  People tell me that they are committed to this or committed to that, but when I observe their daily actions, I see what they are really committed to, really.  This center of things is what I DO.  It is my daily actions that produce something.  All too often it can be all about me . . . regardless of what I SAY.

The value you provide.  This center of things is critical to my emotional wellbeing.  It is purpose.  It is making a difference. When we have meaningful work to accomplish and we do it well, there is nothing quite like it.  It can so be, a life well lived.  Not measured by longevity, but rather impact and significance.

The goal is to keep these centers healthy, unstrained, toned, exercised, in great shape, so that you can live a remarkable life, one of effortless and powerful purpose.

Saying no

Perhaps the most difficult thing in the whole world is saying no. There are a multitude of reasons this is true. For most people, it just seems so impolite and unaffirming, both of which are socially pricy and emotionally uncomfortable. For others it is societal pressure which keeps them from saying no. They don't feel like they actually can say no, perhaps because of WHO is asking them, maybe a boss, or maybe co-worker who has been helpful in the past, or maybe it is a family member who genuinely needs assistance (even if you are the wrong person to deliver that assistance).

For others it is difficult to say no because of the threat of lost opportunity. I am facing one of those situations myself right now. I have a great opportunity to expand my business. I could have 14 new clients just handed to me! Moreover, lots of leeway and discretion in how I would approach their development and the implementing of that development process with each of them. So on paper, in the abstract, it seems like I really need to scarf this gift up right away and not look too closely at the dental work, right?

Well maybe. It really IS an opportunity. An opportunity to become the irrefutable best at what I do. An opportunity to learn. An opportunity to be a star. An opportunity to sharpen my skills and systems and processes. An opportunity to expand our brand, and extend our reach. It truly is all of those things. But the tricky thing is that each opportunity in life has it's own price.

It seems that many of the leaders I work with have a very difficult time holding the “price” in their mental focus for the very necessary period of time, until, you feel the full weight of that price. Many are blinded so badly by the “opportunity” and all the potentials that it brings, that it appears nearly impossible for them to entertain the real and certain “price”. The price of my 14 new clients is that they are immature train wrecks in many ways - i.e. problems, challenges, high maintenance, etc, etc. The opportunities are not a sure bet, but the “price” is definite.

Saying no is difficult because of the seduction of scale over quality. Saying no is often impossible because of pressures, needs, wants, desires, wishes and the Santa Claus effect, that can only see the opportunity, and can never quite grasp, weigh, consider, think through and have great clarity about the price.

Heart stopping surprise

This morning started out normal enough. I got up and prepared myself for my morning bike ride. After stretching out and doing crunches, I was preparing to turn off the air conditioner before I went out for my ride. I had my finger on the off button, when the entire balcony lit up with tremendous arcs of electricity. The flash of electricity and the tremendous noise was overwhelming. Somehow I thought I had blown up my air conditioner compressor which was on my balcony. This blinding flash scared me so badly, I dropped the air conditioning remote. I shielded my eyes and covered my ears. I was certain my brand-new air conditioner had just exploded to Smitherins. Then the power went completely out on the entire block.

After recovering my wits a little bit, I realize that my air conditioner had not exploded. Instead one of the local transformers had melted down and arced tremendously. Needless to say everyone in the entire condominium was now awake whether they wanted to be or not.

The adrenaline jolt for me personally was a real shock to my system. For 30 seconds I was convinced that I had caused the entire explosion. But I had nothing to do with it. It only seemed that way because the proximity of my finger on the power off button of the air conditioning remote.  The synergy of that moment of touching the off button and the arcs of blinging electricity convinced me that I had "done it".  But I hadn't.

Now if I only knew what the lesson I should learn from this is . . . .

Even guys like me

Mondays. Since I don't work in a typical office nor on a typical schedule nor on typical hourly structures, Monday is usually just an abstract to me. Most weeks find me working on all seven days, so Monday is a non-issue. Nor is there a hump day nor a weekend. All in all I love it.

But occasionally a day happens that is totally Mondayish and it actually happens to be on a Monday even! Any day that finds me facing the temptation to use swear words in three languages before 8:00 am is not starting well. It is the rainy season in Asia, and that means … well it rains. Often. Frequently. Mostly several times a day. Occasionally all day. Amazingly it can be sunny and then 15 minutes later you can be in the middle of a 5 minute downpour (which just as well be a one hour downpour in terms of how soaking wet you get).

So when you go outside in the rainy season, you take especially made plastic bags with you to protect your phone from water damage. While you may have never heard of such a thing in the West, here in the subtropics you certainly have - they are a basic requirement of life. At the very least electronic life. Of course this morning on my way out to exercise, I forgot. No worries though, the sky was clear … until I reached the mountain.

Then the sprinkle started, and then the fog and heavy clouds rolled in, and then the rain started in earnest … the one and only morning I forgot my protection bag!! So I had to cut my workout short, and race back to shelter. Except of course, you can't race anywhere on a wet road and a bicycle. So in truth, I slowly desperately fought my way back to shelter, as fast as I dared. Thankfully, all electronics survived!

Finally get back to my room, get my soggy clothes off and hung up, including my soaked shoes, get a hot shower, gather some important letters that need to go out before I have to go to my morning meeting and start my work plans for the day in another city. So I am at the post office 5 minutes before it was scheduled to open at 10:00 am. My meeting was scheduled to start at 10:30 - 10:45. At 10:30, after waiting for 35 minutes, no postal worker has yet shown up to open the post office and so I raced off to my meeting.

I arrived on-time for my meeting, but the others were late! It is not even 11:00 am and as of yet nothing has gone well or as planned. It did not get any better throughout the day, including the elephant camp, the rain (again), the shopping with my guest, our dinner, etc, etc, etc, etc. Yes, sometimes Mondays even happen to guys like me. At least the writing is better than therapy.

Difficult decisions

As a leadership consultant and CEO, I have a number of pet concepts that have withstood the test of time. My number one concept is, “Under promise, over deliver.” You see plenty of that idea in many of my blogs. Another one, no less common unfortunately but far less inspiring is, “Someone has to be the adult.” My kids especially hate it when I pull that one out, but the leaders I work like it no more than the kids.

But it is oh so true. Everyone wants to be a leader, but almost no one wants to make leadership level decisions. Because they are always difficult decisions. Decisions that no one wants to make. Heck if they were easy, someone would have already made the decision! The non-leaders can be as reckless and immature as they want, but the leaders, they have to do the right thing for the right reason without any luxury of what he or she wants. Difficult decisions. Someone has to be the adult. If you are the leader, that would be you.

Maintenance moments?

Thank God for maintenance! Today was my 6000 kilometer service for my motorcycle. I needed what this brought, all apart from the oil and filter. 

The maintenance service forced me to sit, be still, and work. I needed it badly. Although it is not like I had been avoiding it or anything, just the busyness of the day, guests, schedules, urgency of the moment, email, demands, rain, distractions of the day, everything taking longer to accomplish than allotted, competing agendas and desires, etc, etc, simply derailed me completely from focused concentrated work.

Take advantage of those enforced times of maintenance, whether it is the Honda shop or the Midas muffler shop or a flight or road trip or waiting in line or any minutes where you are forced to be patient and wait - can serve as a great opportunity for an inspirational moment.

Making babies

What a satisfying day at "work".  I can't imagine that anyone has a job like mine.  Its a location-less job, with a long long reach.  Today I am physically in Chiang Mai Thailand in Southeast Asia.  The part of my work that was so satisfying today was in the Ukraine.

There in Ukraine are young Tolic and Sveta.  They are both very physically handicapped.  They both grew up in Ukrainian state orphanages.  Then they did the unimaginable - they got married!  And still, even though married, as all "graduates" from State orphanages do in the Slavic world, they were sent to the Old Folks Home when they turned 18 and by law must leave the orphanage.  The only other option they had was to go live in a State Psychiatric Hospital. 

As married couples usually do, they made a baby. The State terminated their pregnancy.  They got pregnant again, and this time they are fighting hard to keep this child.  (this pic is of Sveta at 7 months) We are moving them out of the old folks home, so that they can keep the baby.  But the logistics are daunting and overwhelming and there are just so many factors to consider.  But a new baby, a new creation of God, is certainly worth all the effort.

The trials of Mr Tsa

I can't believe how naive I am sometimes.  I mean, don't you just ASSUME that others will treat you like they want to be treated?  Don't YOU treat others the way you expect to be treated? Surely I can't be in the minority here!  But there is something amiss in my la-la land.

At first I thought it was just a wild anomaly.  While we were getting a foot massage the other evening, three girls, jumped up and run off without paying 3/4 of the way into their foot massage!  Girls!  Foreigners who obviously had enough thousands of dollars to get here in the first place, ripping off people who are not certain of having enough money to buy their one meal of the day.  The poorest of the poor.  I thought it was an anomaly.  I was wrong.

Today I was sitting on a tiny little stool in Mr Tsa bicycle shop, about four inches off the floor, watching Mr Tsa replace the spoke I had broken earlier in the morning.  Five brawny American and Aussie boys (20 somethings) returned with their rental bikes.  The bikes had clearly been in the mud and offroad, although their contract with Mr Tsa expressly forbid that.  These were the cheapest of the rentals, for city use only, costing a $1.65 per day.

Mr Tsa informed the boys that were going to have to pay extra, in order to have the bikes detailed again, so that he would be able to rent the bikes to the next customers.  They protested strongly against the $1.25 cleaning fee assessed against each bike.  In the conversation that followed, Mr Tsa informed me that if I had not been there, things might have gone very badly for him indeed.  He then proceeded to tell me of how many times rich foreigners regularly lied, cheated, damaged, abused and generally did not behave in any manner in which to inspire confidence in the human race, to him and his business over the years.  I asked him what percentage took advantage of him overall.  He replied, "about 50% good like you, and about 50% bad, or worse, like them."  I was ashamed for all Westerners who I see here, giving us all a bad name.  I think I probably have to do 10 righteous acts, to counter a single bad apple in the mix.

The biggest irony for me, is that these people ripping off the poorest in south east Asia are the Millennial's - the most justice minded generation ever.  Maybe they should start with a dose of simple human decency and compassion before they yell at the rest of us to save the world.

Warm steady breeze

How are you doing setting the ambience for your best work?  For me a warm steady breeze works best.  Warm because I don't want to be cold and steady because I don't want to get too hot.  A warm steady breeze in my workflow happens like this.

It blows between things.  Between other events and appointments throughout the day.  There is no happy hour of creating or innovating or thinking.  It doesn't happen every day between 4-6 pm.  It more often occurs after my session with my physiotherapist, before my scheduled meeting with my boss.  Between those things.  30 minutes here, an hour there, intentional for sure (i.e. steady), but between other stuff.

Its warm all the time.  There is always a back burner seeing the world through a particular set of eyes, that can draw a metaphor for life that is worth living.  Its always warm.  Its always on.  There is no effort to it,  It doesn't take a ton of energy nor attention.  Just a percolating slightly all the time. Its always warm and slowly cooking something good up.

And often, it is actually a warm steady breeze, for real.  Like at this very moment, my "office" is the rooftop of my building, and its about 3000 square ft, with a killer view, internet, can enjoy my cigar, and there is a constant perfect warm breeze blowing out of the south.  A moment to create and think and innovation and build and develop.  Its an accelerant for the mind and heart.  And about the time the cigar ends, I will have to go back to the scheduled and planned and have a conversation with the boss . . . but the warm steady breeze was a golden moment. 

Being THERE versus BEING there

Some jobs need you to be fully present, on location, there in the flesh.  That is the primary reason I stepped down recently as the pastor of the International Church in Skopje.  I needed to BE there, and I couldn't.  Other jobs require you to be fully present mentally and emotionally, but not physically. That is the job I have now.  People still need me to be present, but they need my attention, my focus, my experience, my skills . . . but they don't actually need me to BE there.

These different types of jobs (and there is a whole scale of jobs between these two extremes) are equally important, equally impactful, and equally difficult, just in completely different ways. Please hear me well, I am in no way diminishing the critical nature of being a Pastor, nor the difficulty of that job.  I should know, as I have held that job in one fashion or another for most of my adult life.

But the locationless job I have now is fascinating to me.  As my dear sweet wife pointed out to me, I am very particularly wired to do this and do it well.  My steady high scores and evaluations year after year, echo her belief.  I have accomplished some significant work this week in Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.  I have helped save babies, teach church planting, been invited to teach, assess, create and develop.  And all this and more, while physically being in Thailand the entire time.

So whether your value is created be BEING there or by being THERE, make sure you don't allow anything to stop you from being awesome.

You are being measured by metrics that you are not even aware of today.

The lady cooking my breakfast doesn't understand that speed or time is one of the most critical factors for Westerners. I can get a better breakfast far quicker at the neighboring store.  Why would I come back here? The desire for variety is often the only reason we even try a new place.  But you get measured by previous experiences.

Every church you visit has a very specific measuring tape.  You won't even know what that tape consist of until you have been there for a while. Trust me, they are taking your measure . . . just as you are taking theirs. 

Every job has metrics, and always only some of them are stated.  Your boss is the one who gets to interpret those metrics and while you may be exceeding all the stated evaluation points, you might not even rank on his/her understanding of those metrics. (I personally have had a number of uplines who use a variable measuring rod, and who interpreted the rules differently for each individual.  Impossible to succeed in such a situation.)

But you have choices.  If you are the business person trying to win my business or loyalty or return, you can query me to see how you did.  While the breakfast lady prompted this blog today, I honestly DID keep an open mind until I saw the breakfast and realized that it took less than three minutes to prepare, and I waited almost 15.  If you are the one searching for a new church or club group, you can stay, leave, or commit to change yourself or them or any combination of these options.  If the job is the focus, you can stay, change, grow, submit or leave, and once again, there are a number of combinations of these options depending on the situation.  But you do have options, let no one lead you to believe otherwise.

I took far too long in life to own up to this fact.  I stayed in a job with a certain company far too long.  And when circumstances finally forced me, forced me, to change and take the option that I could not contemplate previously, is when I was finally set free.  The scale and scope of my accomplishments since making the change, far exceed my previous production, in a third of the time.  Yes you are being measured by metrics you aren't even aware of, yet you have options and choices.

Extending your reach

I am really feeling the need to write these days.  Recently I opened my blogger account and what I discovered was a little disconcerting.  In 2006 and 2007, I posted a blog just about every other day.  But then came 2008 - only 16 for the whole year.  Then 2009 - only 3. Then 2010 - only 3. Then 2011 - only 1 Then 2012 - only 0.

Did I produce anything during those years?  Well actually I did.  But I got away from the discipline of systematically putting the work down in a place where it could be consumed, read, where it had the possibility of helping someone else, changing a life, building someone up, teaching an important concept or principle.  In reality blogging for someone like me - in a thinking job - is accountability.  A metric that can be seen and, well, measured.

Now I am using Evernote to track my touches with clients around the world, Feedly (at the moment but looking for something better) to research now that google reader is gone, Drafts for writing all content, because it is perfect on the mobile devices that I use, and I can then chose over 20 other actions with whatever I write, and back to blogger to publish the best content.  The challenge of a thinking job is that no one else but me will hold me accountable for producing something of value.  And we all need to bring value into the lives of others and into our work.  We all need to extend our reach.

Work in the real and virtual world

Some jobs need you to be fully present, on location, there in the flesh.  That is the primary reason I stepped down recently as the pastor of the International Church in Skopje.  I needed to BE there, and I couldn't.  Other jobs require you to be fully present mentally and emotionally, but not physically. That is the job I have now.  People still need me to be present, but they need my attention, my focus, my experience, my skills . . . but they don't actually need me to BE there. 

 These different types of jobs (and there is a whole scale of jobs between these two extremes) are equally important, equally impactful, and equally difficult, just in completely different ways. Please hear me well, I am in no way diminishing the critical nature of being a pastor, nor the difficulty of that job.  I should know, as I have held that job in one fashion or another for most of my adult life. 

 But the locationless job I have now is fascinating to me.  As my dear sweet wife pointed out to me, I am very particularly wired to do this and do it well.  My steady high scores and evaluations year after year, echo her belief.  I have accomplished some significant work this week in Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.  I have helped save babies, teach church planting, been invited to teach, assess, create and develop.  and all this and more, while physically being in Thailand the entire time.

So whether your value is created by BEING there or by being THERE, make sure you don't allow anything to stop you from being awesome.

Day Four

Day Four

Synergy. I am no longer sure that this is something you can plan for nor design. The last two days would be a perfect example. Yesterday was a day from hell. Everything that could go wrong did. It started out that way right after my workout. I had time to start a quick load of laundry before my appointment. So I did.

As soon as the load finished and I popped the lid up, I knew I was in trouble. The tangled mess of cables told me that I had washed my ipod along with my workout clothes! A soaking wet ipod is never a good thing. After placing my ipod in a small bowl of isopropyl alcohol, and then in a cup of uncooked rice to start the drying process, I headed to the internet company's office to complain about being without connectivity for the last two days.

The very nice Thai lady informed me that a technician would be calling me soon. He did and determined that the modem had failed. So I packed up the modem, and headed back across town to the internet office to exchange the modem. She politely informed me that I would have to go to the TP-Link office. So I did. There a miraculous repair took place. I happily took my now repaired modem home. It worked for a bit more than 60 seconds before it reverted to the same problem as before.

This time I jumped on my bicycle and headed right back over to the TP-Link office and asked him to exchange the modem. He said he would. He lied. Long story short, there was no exchange, although they went through an elaborate charade to make it seem that it had happened. It took quite some time to pull off. Then off and on my unsuspecting way home, I had a bicycle moment, where my legs and gears were not synchronize at all. Lots of pain and blood resulted. Insult to injury was when I got home and the modem worked about 60 seconds.

All that pain for nothing. And I have spared you the details. In spite of all that energy that I was expending to get stuff moving, no synergy was happening at all.

Fast forward one morning more, and the AC guy, AND the internet guy, both show up at the same time, ONE HOUR EARLY, which is the Asian equivalent of a lunar landing, and viola, both my internet and my AC are getting done - synergy happening in droves today.

My take away is that I don't know when to stop spending my energy recklessly and uselessly, and I don't know when to sit back and let it happen. I need to pay attention to the cultural flows and ebbs, as well as take a serious chill pill. Then I may shed less blood and experience less pain, than trying to generate something out of nothing.

Day Three

Day three. Priorities. Or you could think of it as triage. That's a great word. I learned that word while studying to be an EMT 27 years ago. Triage is what you do when you have multiple patients at the same time, all needing care from you. Which one gets treatment first?

The most critically injured patient gets treatment first, right? Well, not always. Sometimes a patient is so critically injured, that they will die no matter what you do because the injury may be beyond your skill, the hospital may be too far, the damage too great, or the cost of treating this patient will cost you the lives of others. Applied to your leadership (and mine), sometimes we have to let a patient (or project or task or relationship) die, in order to save the other 12 people who need attention.

Once we have determined what we need to let go of and release it from our sphere of responsibility, then we need to prioritize the remaining tasks (patients) in order of severity or urgency. In our leadership model or working model, this means that I read my RSS feeds before I do email. Seth Godin points out that answering or responding to something someone thought yesterday, is less important than creating something important or wonderful today.

The point being that I can only experience frustration in the long run if I am unwilling or unable to tackle the most necessary first, rather than the easiest or what I like to do best.

Day Two

This is day two. What are you going to create today? What are you starting, beginning, developing, working on, progressing, furthering, or finishing? Have you found the workflow you need to be creative and wonderful? Have you discovered your best place or environment to set it loose and do? I think the rooftop along with a nice Nicaraguan should do nicely.

Choices is the word of the day. You have to make some choices about how you will spend these hours, what you will produce and how you will go about doing so. And the choices you make, will also dictate that some choices were decided against, at least for today. A choice “for” something is a choice “not for” something other. In other words this morning for breakfast I choose between Dan and Carol's dive versus the corner dive - I can't eat breakfast today at both places, although I could eat at both places over the course of the day. Although by definition one meal would not be breakfast. Again a choice for one is a choice against another.

It gets more complex as we go, because the first choice puts pressure on other choices down the line today. The location of the two breakfast choices this morning would have made very different “coffee” and “workplacetoday” locations possible this afternoon. Choosing one determined if I could also do laundry or not while working. Choosing one over the other determined who I met, saw and worked with throughout the day as well. Not every initial choice has so much impact every day, but it always has impact. Calculating that impact into the first choice of the day is a very important factoring process.

All of these lead to a moment, an hour, a block of time where you produce … something. Often the quality of production, the magic, the value, the importance is highly affected by those previous choices. Choose well.

Thinking - Day One

Thinking, real thinking requires a measure of atmosphere or ambience or view in order to inspire said thinking.  This is true of most people, because the thinking itself is not enough for most folks, enjoyment-wise that is.  Inspiration and thinking go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Exercise is one way to foment thinking thoughts, as the blood starts gushing hard through the old veins.  And if you can combine atmosphere and exercise together, then you have the makings of a truly solid thinking window.  Above is what a gorgeous Fall morning looks like from my bicycle in Macedonia.

I am always seeking out such spaces in my life, so that I can accomplish the best possible work with the resources that I am capable of each day.

International Travel

It is a bit bumpy on this ride. Riding through wind currents and trade winds and the jet stream at 600 miles an hour can be bumpy. In fact it's making this blog a bit difficult to write, or at least difficult to hit the correct keys. Wait a second while I get my seatbelt back on . . . there, that is safer. Hopefully the iPad and the keyboard won't go flying and hit some unfortunately person in the head or something.

But in terms of time, nothing comes close, bumps aside. There is no other way to get from Amsterdam to Atlanta in 8.5 hours. Almost 5000 miles and most of the folks were complaining. They should try swimming next time, or even using a jet ski or ship or submarine, and they would quickly find that KLM is a far superior option in the big scheme of things. Now if only I was one of those people who could sleep for hours and hours on a plane, that would be outstanding! Make an astounding stretch of distance seem even much shorter!

Spiritual journeys are like International Travel in few ways. There is the exotic food, and perhaps the close proximity to some strange looking and acting people, but spiritual journeys are not about the destination nearly as much as they are about travel itself. The movement from one level of maturity and understanding to an new and different level is the point of a spiritual journey, not always where you are going as much as how you are going. International Travel is about how to get from point A to point B with the least amount of time, money and discomfort possible. Spiritual journeys are about tastes, textures, experiences, failures, growth and maturing. Very different trips indeed. Oh by the way, they both can be quite bumpy at times. Better put on your seatbelt.