The moment

The moment

The absolute most difficult time for me to live in. The now. The moment. This minute. I live mentally and profoundly in the future. What's coming next. The NEXT thing. The tomorrow. It's been this way since I was a kid. Always thinking about, planning for, anticipating, the future. But I discovered along the way that I wasn't getting much out of the present. 

This is a powerfully negative attribute, because the Now, this moment is all I (or you) actually have. There are no tomorrows, there is no future, except in a possible theoretical way. Yes it probably will get here, but it may not. So Now is all I truly have and can count upon. It is imperative that I enjoy, experience, and live this moment.

So my mental energy is often employed to pull me back from this future abyss and remind myself sternly that the psychic prison of the future is robbing my present of . . . well everything. Don't lose 40 years of your life like someone I know well. 

Live this moment well. It's all any of us have truly.

The Plan

"The Plan"

The Plan came about because of how little retirement resources we have secured away. There are many reasons for how little we have set aside, but most of them come down to two primary factors, first that we worked for very little money to ourselves in the non-profit sector and second, the intense needs of the people we live and work among while we live outside of the USA. Most of our working adult lives have been well spent, from a position of helping some of the neediest people on the planet. But the net result for us personally is that we have not used many of these resources toward our own benefit. That net result means that we have a deep shortfall of the resources theoretically necessary to carry us along in our non-income producing years - which are in our near future. (theoretical in the sense that we easily could die before any of those resources are needed)

While it is mildly comforting to read that most Americans also do not have much money saved (misery loves company?), and few resources set aside for their golden years, that nevertheless does not change the fact that we too are facing that near future dilemma. So after several especially painful experiences this past year, which clearly revealed that we are indeed getting much older, more fragile, and plus a horribly enlightening letter from the Social Security Administration detailing how little we could expect in retirement - out of all of that, came "The Plan".

The plan is to BRRRR real estate (BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) enough real estate that we can perhaps feed ourselves and house ourselves and continue our life-long pattern of helping others in greater need. The Plan came about far far too late to be highly effective (works best if started in your 20's), or to have much margin for error, but we are boldly going where few in our line of work have ever gone before. We are especially poor candidates for the The Plan, because we live 5000+ miles from where The Plan is taking place and that takes more money (leaving less to save) and holds higher risks (because we are so far away).  Plus the disaster known as the American banking situation (see previous post) makes this very difficult to accomplish.

Yet any forward progress is indeed progress and we will make the best of whatever we can accomplish before our non-producing income years arrive. A poor plan of action taken, is far superior to no action and no plan at all. Cheers to The Plan

Banks and horrors

Banks and horror

The American banking system is broken beyond imagination. It is intrusive and invasive under the guise of protecting us all from some remote money laundering actions or some other imagined threat. They blame the Federal government and that may or may not be accurate and true. But this I know for certain after the last 11 weeks of wrestling with the American banking nightmare - they have no interest at heart but their own.

I am a model client for a bank. No debt and a credit rating over 800 and assets - but I can't borrow any money. That's right, a person who is a premiere candidate for repaying the money I borrow (if for no other reason than I always have), a person who has shown and proven that they handle money in a wise and appropriate manner, can't get anything out of a bank. I tried. I tried with a great deal of effort. I tried with tenacity. Zero. Zilch. Nothing. No progress. In fact, my responsible behavior with fiscal resources for all my life make me a prime risk according to the banks of America.

Now the private sector is an entirely different story. They are falling all over themselves to give me more money than I can reasonably return. This too is a travesty. For it is the inversion of the American banking system. Too much money with too little collateral too easily given. And no I am not complaining, but simply explaining, that both of these positions are dire situations. Money is too tight in the banking sector and too loose in the private sector.

The horror of it all is how many banks just turned away my business so frivolously. I am trying to do business. I am trying to make a profit. A profit which would profit them as well. I honestly cannot imagine how they are making any money. Most branch managers seemed genuinely irritated that I interrupted their solitaire games which they were playing on their bank computers, when I come calling for money. (There were two exceptions along the way, but they too produced far too little in the end of a great deal of effort on their parts and my part).

So in the end I am using my own money and owner financing for my business ventures. They (the owners) are making a tidy profit, and I am laboring to move forward with building a reservoir with which my wife and I can bless others. But if you have a line on how you can get banks to part with their resources, I welcome an email from you spelling out how this might could happen.

What we repeatedly do

What we repeatedly do

I have seen so many peeps in my networks who quote some version of this . . . "As Will Durant writes in The Story of Philosophy (a quote often misattributed to Aristotle): “We are what we repeatedly do.""

This is arguably the most simple and the most complex statement ever. I am what I repeatedly do? And what do I repeatedly do? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. That is where the rubber meets the asphalt and friction occurs. So let me list what I repeatedly do, and perhaps you might find some similarities and likely conclusions.

I sleep the most of anything

I eat the most regularly of anything else, often, frequently, everyday

I read a great deal every day

I work very hard every day

I exercise a great deal every day

I travel a great deal every day

I smoke a cigar every day

I talk to my dad every day

I get a massage 5 times a week when in Europe or Asia

I watch a hockey game three times a week

And everything else declines from that . . . those are my most regularly repeatedly done tasks/actions.

So what are I?

We are what we repeatedly do?

So I am a sleepy, eating, reading, hard working, riding, traveling, smoking, well massaged hockey watching son?

No.

It is not only the actions we repeatedly do, it is the quality of the CONTENT and QUALITY of what we repeatedly do that makes us what we are - at least that is what I am thinking. 

The QUALITY of my sleep prepares me to accomplish all the other things I repeatedly do.

The CONTENT and QUALITY of what I eat fuels my accomplishments of what I repeatedly do.

The QUALITY of my exercise determines my energy.

Etc etc

You get the picture. You have to have the highest caliber of CONTENT and QUALITY in those things you repeat each day to get the results you expect and want. 

Aim high.

If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will

Greg McKeown's famous quote is ever more true. Someone is always waiting to prioritize your life. But then it is no longer YOUR life, is it? Someone is always prepared to give you more tasks, more responsibility, more options, more success, more agendas, more more more. And perhaps you can't wait for that challenge. But it is not YOUR life, because you did not choose those tasks, responsibilities, options, successes, agendas, etc etc. Someone else did. This is not what you want to accomplish.

Instead you want to pursue the right things for now. Which may not be what you should have pursued a decade ago, but what you should be doing right now, today, in this moment. But few of us have this experience. Instead we endow objects, opportunities, and possibilities with mystical powers, and THEY own our lives, our priorities.

The endowment effect - another McKeown quote - states that your emotional closet has more in it than you can purposefully utilize. This is true in our actual closets, and in the closets (spheres) of our lives. When you touch it, it being whatever is in that closet, to give it away, to get rid of it, whether it be a sweater or an opportunity, we seem to automatically overvalue whatever is in that closet. When this happens - and it will - at that point my closet owns me, it determines my priorities, I have lost control.

The only way to regain control is to regain control. Don't let these "things" be more important than they actually are in the real world. To get to MY measurables, MY objectives, MY deliverables, I have to have the clarity to understand what MY priorities are, and not allow my closets nor my peeps to prioritize my life. So sit down right now, list on a sheet of paper what are your underserved priorities actually are, and then list the priorities that others and the stuff in your closets are presenting to you. 

Find clarity. 

Prioritize your life. 

Or someone else surely will.

New Year here

New Year here

We are wrapping up 2018 by taking a long weekend at a farm house AirB&B way up near the New York and Pennsylvania border in the National forest. It is very cold and very quiet . . . outside at least. Inside it is more than noisy with 11 of us yelling and laughing and talking and catching up. I keep trying to find a quieter corner to just sit and soak up the positive sounds, and manage the negative sounds. Both are normal parts of living and living well. All we have is this moment, no matter if the calendar we use tells us that the current year is ending and new year about to begin. Those are somewhat artificial beginnings and endings after all.

So instead of making resolutions of those changes that I think may be necessary or beneficial for the coming year/future, this year I have been comtemplating the past year and grading myself on the things I did successfully and which ones I somewhat failed at and trying to discern why these were less than successful. Were the goals too ambitious? Did they lack appropriate urgency? Were they foolish and thus fail to grasp my attention and energy and focus on a daily or regular basis? What moved me forward? What was holding me back? Or you can make this process more emotionally and activity focused by doing the following.

Tim Ferris refers to this process as PYR's or previous year's review. He suggests that you take 30-60 minutes and do these steps:

1. Grab a notepad and create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.

2. Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week. 

3. For each week, jot down on the pad any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month. Put them in their respective columns.

4. Once you’ve gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?”

5. Based on the answers, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. Get them on the calendar now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar. That’s step one. Step two is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere you can see them each morning for the first few weeks of 2019. These are the people and things you *know* make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense.

Experience

Experience

A wise person will never bet against my dad, when it comes to diagnosing the probable cause of a car's mechanical problem. Every single time I have done this in my life, I have lost. I am not a very wise man when it comes to car problems. Never will I forget 10 years ago, when both lights on my Jeep went out at the same time, I mean both! Everyone told me it HAD to be the dimmer switch in the steering column. Dad said likely both lights had just blown. But everyone (45 people) said it had to be the dimmer switch. So I changed out the dimmer switch - a six hour laborious, cuss-worthy, difficult and expensive job. When finished I had a new dimmer switched install but still no headlights. Yes, you know it, both headlamps had burned out at the same time. About 35 minutes of work and easy as pie, and cheap too.

This week my antique truck started to whistle. It wasn't whistling Dixie, but it was definitely whistling - in a loud and alarming manner. From within the cab of the truck while rolling down the road, it definitely sounded like the throw-out bearing was failing. We listened to it over and over and I would have bet $1000 that the whistle was coming from under my feet, definitely the throw-out bearing. But dad had his doubts, and we tested over and over. He would not let me yank that transmission and replace that bearing because it is a butt-ugly amount of work, and he had his doubts. He was fairly certain that it was the alternator. The alternator?? Finally after a week long stand-off I suggested we go ahead and change the alternator and eliminate that as a possible whistler, and then we could get on to the real work of changing the bearing, and the worst that could happen is that I had a new alternator in the old truck.

Yes, you know it, it was the alternator. 

It's a little spooky what 60 years of experience can teach you. Be wise. Listen to the guy with the experience. 

What you love will change and be gone soon enough

What you love will change and be gone soon enough

There are many nostalgic things surrounding me while visiting here with my dad. They don't exist any longer, they are firmly in the past and only memories. Almost none of the things that I fondly remember from my childhood are possible in the present, 50 years later. Wow, that's a big number!

This will be each person's personal experience, if they live long enough. It is inevitable. The only constant is change. So what does that mean for today? Well at the very least it means that the things I love today, will also be not longer available in the future. It is that kind of change - the irreversible type. I can come to love new and exciting things, like my grandchildren, but the people, values, challenges, problems, sicknesses, politics, population density, landscape, weather, as well as the possibilities are all different than when I was a boy, and no matter what your age is today, the changes you see it a typical lifespan will be enormous. 

That is a great opportunity or a horrible reality - it mostly depends on your mindset. You decide. Everyday.

Exactly two years ago . . .

Exactly two years ago . . . 

I was on this same flight number, same airline, same destination, same route and when I landed in Atlanta my son Jake called me and told me that I was too late, mom had already passed away.  Not unexpected, not a surprise, but life-changing nevertheless. Another part of the fabric of life was ripped and can never be the same. A pillar in my life was destroyed and removed.

There is no way I would be sitting here and wishing her back with us in the same condition she found herself at the end, but God I miss her. I miss her laugh, her wisdom and her mercy. No one has those in the same qualities that she did. My life would be so much less if not for her. I may have come farther than any man before me in the history of the world, because of the influence of my mom in my life. I miss you girl . . . 

Powerless at foot drop

Powerless at foot drop

There is a point where you can experience the terrifying vulnerability of having your body fail you for no damn good reason. This powerlessness is awful. I wasn't even doing anything remotely dangerous or exotic or life-threatening (and I regularly do all three of those). No this came from sitting on a hard chair, for 3.5 hours, with my legs crossed. Yeah you can reread that sentence and wonder if I made a mistake or did not proof read my blog, but no, you would be mistaken. According to my nurse/neurologist, I effectively did nerve damage to my peroneal nerve by sitting on a rock hard chair for 3.5 hours with my legs crossed. This nerve damage results in a condition known as Foot Drop. Yes I damaged myself by being in a meeting!

Powerless. Because I sit on hard chairs all the time. I have almost no control over the chairs in my life when I am on the road traveling 100 days per year. I have been crossing my legs Euro-style for decades. Ok ok this was a pretty long meeting, but it wasn't THAT long! And I get up out of that chair and find out immediately that my left ankle and foot will not work properly. It's like they have gone to sleep without the whole tinglely thing. They will not articulate properly, they won't climb stairs properly, I am dragging my left foot like a cripple. Powerless.

Three weeks have passed since this first happened, and I am making tiny incremental progress each day toward normal functional foot and ankle. But I don't even have control over that process. There is no pill to take, there is no exercise to do, there is no decision that can be made to make things better. I am a terrible patient.

There is a special kind of trusting Jesus that is required when faced with powerlessness. And then over this three week period I realized that there is no special kind of trusting Jesus at all. We trust Jesus period, when we realize our powerlessness in any area of life. And frankly I am far more powerless in far more areas of my life, than I had ever considered before. It's ok to trust Jesus. It's foolish to trust your own abilities, because they can just stop working at any time with no notice. Jesus doesn't operate that way.

Careful to not let it touch your lips

Careful to not let it touch your lips

There are some wonderfully hot things in Asia, and some that you might need to be extra careful with as you experiment with them. The "pic-nam-blough " can be particularly deadly. And then I have found there is one level even above that, which I don't have an official Thai word for, but I privately call it thermonuclear.

I had that for breakfast recently with my fish and rice. There were so many peppers in there I could not see where the fish started and where the peppers ended. It was wonderful, unless you let it touch your lips. If you do that, expect 10-20 minutes of numb useless nerve endings that have been rendered unresponsive by the thousands of Scoville heat units assaulting them. I learned that I had better eat my pie first if I actually want to taste it. Then again I often eat my pie first, and last. Regardless, enjoy all the spicyness of what life has to offer, but be careful with the lips. 

Totally awesome change-the-world tech

Totally awesome change the world tech

I have accomplished more in 40 minutes on this airplane, than I did in the last 10 days combined. And I only used 4% of available battery power to do it. You gotta love tech like that. I could have pulled the laptop, but that goes through battery like a fire through gasoline. The iPad Pro, oh dude! All day working on this thing. The only limitation here is my imagination - and ok, that is actually pretty limited, but the tech isn't holding me back.

So I have jumped on four blogs on the first leg of my journey. That is huge, because the last three weeks I haven't had a single second to write a thing, and when I am too busy to write, then I am too busy period. What that really means is that I am too busy to think, and that has far deadlier ramifications. When I am not thinking first and foremost, then I am responding, and that generally leads to paths I had rather not travel. Not only that, responding to everything is just a tiny step above being a consumer, the bottom dregs of a life not worth living.

Instead, to be the designer of your life. It requires boldness and risk and that difficult "no" to everyone else's agendas. Stop living their lives. Start living yours. The tech is available. You are here now. Do it!

Doing the hardest things

Doing the hardest things

Lots of advice says do the most difficult thing first in the day, to get it accomplished and out of the way. It's the "eat your vegetables first" way of thinking. Well I have long known that I am a "eat your dessert first" kind of guy, so this kind of thinking and approach is not easy for me to do. I have discovered that it is difficult for many of my clients to do also.

It's really hard to have objective clarity about the next correct course of action in many situations. And even when I know what I should do, there are often many emotional non-logical reasons why I don't want to do it even though I know I should. If you never face these emotional quagmires, then you likely are not still fully human.

I was lying in bed, mentally reviewing the last several days, and there was a clear course of action that I should try, even though it may have failed, but an attempt was necessary on a number of levels in order to have integrity in the relationship at the end of the day. But there was all this messy emotional shit obfuscating my will to act and do the right thing.

Not only that, as is often the case, there was a very short window of opportunity, which meant I need to act quickly, or the opportunity was going to pass. So not only am I doing the emotional quicksand dance in my head, but I also have a ticking clock clanging in there! Opportunities don't generally sit around for weeks and weeks at a time. They come and go quickly.

Wisely I mentally gave myself a vicious kick that almost knocked me out of bed, and pushed all the messy emotional stuff to the mental corner, and took action . . . probably mere seconds before my opportunity vanished. I need to succeed more like this one. Too often I fail to act, or hesitate so long, opportunity lost. These are the hardest things to pull the trigger on.

Why - part three

Why - part three

First of all let me state that I am breaking this up into smaller bites, because too many of you are tld'tr people (too long didn't read). And shame on you. On the other hand, I need to speak more concisely and this is helping me do so. 

So "why?" no triage allowed? Because triage allows others to leverage your values and motivations and time and space and capacities and potential and gifts. Triage means that you have said yes too many times, and that guilt and pressure and mental/emotional games can be leveraged against you and your very limited time and energy. Triage means that you have too many choices. Choice is only your friend when you are in the Essentialism Part of your life, when PTA (protecting the asset) is easy and the first priority of each day. When I let my PTA slide then that totally should be the first and brightest RED flag that I am going the wrong direction!

Of course, there are clearly times when that is taken out of your hands, like this 30 hours trip to Asia, takes most of my daily practices away. They simply cannot be done in airports, and inside of airplanes, and while moving 5000 miles across the planet to a new spot. But the minute I land, I am going to the bicycle shop, to get the most important piece of equipment for my PTA, a bike of course. I won't ride it until the following day, because I will be out of my brain with fatigue by that point, but no going to bed, without setting myself up for success the following day.

If I land and instead have to follow everyone else's agendas, plans, needs and wishes, then I am doomed to triage rather than making the impact on this world that only I can make. This is the why. Keep focused. PTA. Essentialism. Make a real difference in the world.

No more triage

No more triage

Part two. So now that I have some time, and I have to confess that I did not MAKE the time, it was hoisted upon me by the airlines, distance, and layovers. However I am not being foolish, I am grabbing the gift that it is, even if I did not make it happen myself - and I should have.

Part of this reclamation of the essentials, my essentialism, is rethinking Mark Manson's book, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k" because you get into these situations because of guilt and pressure and other people's agendas, not because you are thinking clearly. Manson's book reminds you what to care about, and quantifies how little you CAN care about and actually get something important accomplished. I was a glorified chauffeur and babysitter all week because I was too weak to have clarity and say no.

Oh yeah, you got to own this. No shifting this to anyone else, otherwise you will never have the will or power to escape the clutches of these endless intrusions into the important and significant contributions that you and only you, can make in this world. No more triage! Say no, and continue saying no until the bare essentials remain. Then knock them out of the park! If you are doing triage regularly, then you are doing this wrong. 

Why - part three.

Some time at last

Some time at last

Hopefully this will be a recall of my life, as in getting it back. As in it has belonged to others too long, and hell fire if you even get a thank you. That should teach me, and should have taught me decades ago but that is a blog for another time. Today's blog is about recalling what is Essential in your life, and why that Essentialism is critical to your effectiveness and well-being.

Before we do recalling though, let me say that this is the giving economy. In the famous words of Earl, all you have is what you give away. That being said and stated upfront, let's also make the painful observation that not all gifts bear the same fruits. So I am not suggesting that we give less, but that we give smarter and with more discipline. Quicker to say no, and slower to give our commitment, and in my case for the last two weeks, far far slower!

On to recalling. What is absolutely the most important thing for me to be doing and how do I structure my days to live it out? The more mental triage you find yourself doing as you answer this question, the  deeper you are into giving of yourself unwisely. In my perfect world, there is no triage. The essentials are apparent and all there is to focus on, not 99 other competing agendas and tasks and wish-lists that others foist upon you. Unfortunately the reason I am writing this precise blog is because I have recently gone to the dark side - the unwise side. I had to do mental triage to answer that question. Shame. The leadership consultant who doesn't follow his own advice. Shame.

Next blog - revisit your essentials and restructure so that there is no triage

24 hours

24 hours

24 hours of silence. 24 hours of thinking. 24 hours of not talking. 24 hours of not listening. 24 hours to contemplate. 24 hours to be. 24 hours to savor. 24 hours to focus totally and completely. 24 hours to change the course of my life. 24 hours to plan. 24 hours to finish important mental work. 24 hours to complete unfinished tasks. 24 hours to myself. The possibilities . . .  

The narrow band of remarkable

The narrow band of remarkable

I am not all that talented, and neither are you. Oh people look at you and me and if they see the image that we try to effect, they may think us powerful, purposeful and all-talented, but the truth is that you and I are not remarkable at very many things. It just takes too many years and too much practice and education and experience and gifting to be remarkable at more than a few.  I am perfectly comfortable with this fact, but I do get ever more weary of other people insistence that I am this or that or those kinds of experts and craftsmen. I am not. There is a saying used in every doctoral program, and mine was no exception - we realize somewhere along the way as we desperately struggle through our dissertations and defenses and research - that we know more and more about less and less. Read that again, because it is so very true.

I have a doctoral degree in leadership. I know almost nothing about leadership. However, I know a great deal about one little tiny corner of one large stone of thousands of large stones in one huge pyramid of leadership around the world. Yes I am remarkable about what I know and can do and accomplish in this one tiny corner, but precious little else. I can be remarkable in this one little fractional niche of expertise, and that has taken me a lifetime of work and learning and failing. How can I think myself remarkable at dozens or hundreds of other skills and knowledge-bases?

My dad and I were building a new well house last month. Well it would be more accurate to say that HE was building it, I was the gopher. He was appalled that I could not even drive a nail very well. I on the other hand, came to grips with my lack of carpentry skills decades ago.  In order to specialize my actual remarkable skills, I had to forego learning many "basics" that all southern boys are expected to know about and do at least a little respectably.  I am ok with that completely, he is still giving me grief over it. But that is his problem not mine. I know that a person can only master a few remarkable skills, and everything else I will have to let someone else be the expert. 

Since I understand this about myself (and everyone else) its easy to listen, its easy to learn, its easy to let other shine in their areas of expertise. I don't (can't!) know everything.

Motivation rises

Motivation rises
Motivation rises when you get a sense of the limitless possibilities of your work, or your relationships, or of your calling or business.  We can all accomplish more than ever before. Technology, communications, and travel have violently changed all the infrastructures in the modern world. It has changed so fantastically in the 24 years I have been working abroad, it honestly is a great deal like a whole new universe.

In Russia when we moved there 24 years ago, we spent more or less $300 USD each month for about an hour of actual phone time back to America or to Germany to talk to the kids. That's right $300 for an hour. Now I can talk to people on three different continents all at the same time and it costs virtually nothing, $40 a month for unlimited hours and conversations. That one piece alone is a game changer.

Flying used to be a big deal. People did not move around the globe all that much. Now I fly 100,000 miles a year, and so do lots of other people. It is not something I am particularly thrilled about, while the cost to return factor is great, the cost to the body and health is not. Virtual is the way to go. Read that sentence again David! While I am actively winding this one huge change in the world back, it is still a game changer. Now I am focusing more on longer trips but less trips.

Technology is the piece that makes all of this possible. My world is so different now than the big old computers I used to lug around. Now I basically hold a screen in my hand and it has far more computing power than I will ever use. I can also write on the screen, read from the screen, type and collate and compare, and a thousand other things on this screen in my hand. Simply elegance and astonishment.

But the biggest changes are inside me. You have to embrace all these changes, or they are practically useless. On the other hand you don't want to get overly enamored with the changes themselves, but rather how they alter the possibilities of what can be accomplished. These changes primarily affect scale and scope - you simply can do so much more with so many others than you could ever before. And along with these magnificent possibilities, comes new responsibilities to keep that genie in the bottle. But motivation rises with all the possibilities. Go change the world, its within your grasp to do so like never ever before.

The beauty of possibilities

There are so many ways to live your life, but for me, one rich with possibilities to make the world a better place is the most beautiful one to live. Leadership is the process of hope giving and hope making and realizing hope. The more possibilities a project has, the more hope angles you have to work with in any given situation.

It is very difficult and challenge work (read that word WORK again) to be a conveyer of hope. It requires that you explore, develop and most importantly, and the most difficult task, is to think. Thinking in these kinds of potentials and possibilities is the pivotal skill that leaders have to hone all the time. I have to remind myself regularly, that this is what is required of me. I have to be intentional and focused on the idea of the possibilities. This is what people pay me for, it is what I do best. It is beautiful. The next post will be about how this can happen in the real world.