I saw poet and author David Whyte several days ago. He spoke for an hour and a half to probably 1,000 of us that packed into the venue. I overheard one woman say that she had driven up from Portland, Oregon (3-4 hour drive) to attend. When I was recounting the evening to my young son, I stumbled upon a thought that hasn’t left me. See, for the 1,000 of us at the show, we were committed. We bought a ticket. We left our homes or our workplaces. We drove to an unfamiliar place. We fought the traffic. We found a place to park. We endured the driving rain while walking into the venue. We got there early. We stayed in our seats. We listened. And, the thought that hasn’t left me is this: we did all of this not because of who the speaker was as a person, but because we knew how the speaker would make us feel. We did all of the work to get to that place at that time for ourselves. There is a key lesson here. People will move heaven and earth not because of who you are, or how great you are, but because of how you make them feel. They will do all of the work, but only because it adds value of some kind and in some way to them. If we want others to move on the organization’s mission, let’s make that mission personally meaningful.
First day of the rest of your life or all downhill from here
"Every day is better than the next." I missed it the first time I heard this line in the movie, "There's Something About Mary." This time, I got it. After laughing I realized something. I have spent years of my life on the wrong side of the equation. "Every day is...