Connecting

I have a story to share. In fact, you may even remember the scene. It took place in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Two athletes in the 5,000-meter race caught the world’s attention. About 3,000 meters into the race, New Zealander Nikki Hamblin and American Abbey D’Agostino collided and fell. Abbey quickly got to her feet but stopped to help Nikki. Moments after the two athletes started running again, Abbey began faltering, and her right leg was injured because of the fall. Nikki’s turn was now to stop and encourage her fellow athlete to finish the race. When Abbey eventually stumbled across the finish line, Nikki was waiting to embrace her. I remember watching this unfold, as did the entire [...]

What is our most valuable resource? I suggest it is time. It’s the most valuable because we don’t have infinite time. Time is a finite resource. Consider some commonly used phrases we find ourselves saying, such as time flies, I don’t have enough time, where does the time go? I’m wasting my time—I think you get the point. As leaders, prioritizing time is a critical competency we must strive to improve. You have meetings, appointments, deadlines, issues to deal with, strategies to develop, and the list goes on. We need to guard ourselves from the "tyranny of the urgent." Put another way--” the most noise gets your attention.” that may not be the best use of your time at that moment. [...]

Each day, we have an opportunity to add value and impact others. Years ago, I was inspired when I read in Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, "The moving finger writ: and having writ, moves on: nor all the piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all they years wash out a word of it." My translation—yesterday is gone forever, perhaps some valuable lessons. Tomorrow is no guarantee. But today is yesterday's tomorrow, and it is all you have, so what will you do with it? Today, we start with a blank canvas. Our day may be filled with many appointments, meetings, calls, etc. Yes, we are busy and hopefully productive. But at the end of the day, the [...]