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Yesterday I delivered my Wisdom Mastery monthly program.  I love the community.  Love the interaction.  I spend quite a bit of energy setting it up, showing up and following up.  It's a passion of mine to serve my Wisdom Mastery community.

And I am exhausted!

Over my 30-year consulting career, almost every project evolved into a passion project.  I cared about meeting milestones and deadlines.  I cared about the quality of deliverables.  Mostly though, I cared about the people.  My clients.  My team. 

And…

Over 30 years, I averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night …. and that's only if I INCLUDE weekends!  When people asked why I didn't suffer from jet lag when I flew all over the world, I told them I was so constantly exhausted, my body just didn't register jet lag.

If you're a consultant, entrepreneur, executive or mom, (or … or …...

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These are turbulent times.  So many ways to divide our attention.  Here in the United States we have an historic election coming up.  Politicians fill the air waves with ads.  Mud fills the air with the mudslinging.  Marketers amp up their Soundbytes.  Breaking news from new media.  Social media channels know if they can grab your attention with a bit catnip, they can capture for a few minutes or even a few hours.

We consume…and for some reason, we want more.  And MORE!

An insatiable hunger gathers in our stomachs.  The hunger grows.  Our very souls are hungry!

Why?  Because these are EMPTY CALORIES!!

What if I told you there was a simple way to feel a sense of fulfillment, comfort and even harmony?  It's available to you every moment of the day.

How much would you pay for a sense of comfort in turbulent times?  $100?  Or $100 times $100?!?!

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You're driving down the highway.  Thinking about what you'll do when you get to your destination.  You smile. 

Life is Good.

A slow driver saunters into your 'fast lane,' cutting you off.  No head check.  No blinker. 

You slam on the brakes!

Pause

What happens next in your scenario?

Positive Psychology identifies top 10 negative emotions which include these four:  Annoyance, Disgust, Anger and Rage.

In the Slow Driver scenario which, by the way, happened to me yesterday, I rank my negative emotions. 

• Am I Annoyed?
• Am I Disgusted?
• Am I Angry?
• Am I Enraged?

If I let go into one of these negative emotions, I leak Personal Power.

If I pause, I get to CHOOSE my Re-action.

Leak or Pause.

The Pause gives me a moment to ask:

How much personal power do I want to give the Slow Driver in front of me?

Definition:  Power Leakage:  Giving personal power away to a person or...

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Imagine the sound of a creaking door, slowly opening.

Got it?

I was out on our Pine City Property yesterday.  My monthly escape from the bustle of my work and home.  My self-imposed GLORIOUS time out.

Next to me, I hear the crackle of my campfire.  Occasionally geese fly overhead with their honking as they migrate. 

It's the stillness I notice.

And the sound of creaking doors.

An old branch blowing in the breeze, makes the sound of a creaky door.

I stopped for a second to listen.  More than one.  Not constant.  Just …. occasional.  I count four in different directions.

I close my eyes.  Pause.  Waiting for the next creak. 

My imagination drifts with the pause.

I see a grandmother, rocking in her chair.  A loose board in the floor creaks as she rocks forward.  She's doing close work with her glasses pulled down her nose.  Needlepoint or...

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I'm dating myself with this story.

I walked out of the restaurant and into the corner phone booth.  If you don't know what a phone booth is, search the internet for it.  The Smithsonian reported in 2015 that a phone booth was put on the National Register of History Places.  Sigh.

On with the story.

There I was in the phone booth.  Completed checking my work voice mails.

Ready to push through the phone booth doors and I stop.  I turn around and decide to put a quarter on top of the phone.  A simple Random Act of Kindness (RAK).  Someone may not have pocket change to make an important call.

Fast forward 6 weeks.

My friend Chris is telling me about a terrible night he had.  Everything was going wrong that day.  You know how those days go.  One thing piles up on another.  That night, he gets hopelessly lost trying to visit a friend and his car gets a flat.  Chris...

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Standing in front of the room of about 30 consultants, I carefully considered how to answer the question.  I had a couple options.  One way to answer the question, I would help these young professionals feel good about their work.  The other answer, probably the more authentic one, would invigorate a few in the room and possibly alienate the rest.

Have you ever faced that kind of dilemma? 

You know the authentic way to go, but there's a clear cost.

At that time, I was a manager in our change management practice.  About six years into my career, I had gained a reputation for doing what we called Change Navigation work.  Most of the change management work was documenting procedures and writing training for large systems implementations.  Change Navigation work was more strategic.  Yes, it included the standard work of documentation, training and communication plans, but more...

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My Accounting professor laid my mid-term exam on my desk.  A big fat red "C" on top. 

Did you know you can "C" out of an MBA program?  Yep.  Just one "C" in one class and they can drop you like a hot potato.

I hated going to my accounting class.  Boring stuff.  Zero motivation.  I was in the PhD program for Organization Behavor & Human Resources.  That's the fun stuff.  The exciting stuff.  The dynamic stuff.  People and decision making.

Accounting was just counting and tracking beans.

Ugh

As I stared at that "C," I realized it was staring back at me. 

It was pissed.  Did I just hear it ask, "What are you doing?!?!?"

I took the mid-term exam home and just looked at that "C."  Not at the exam.  Not at the problems.  Not at my incorrect answers.   Just that "C."

"I see you, but what do you want?"  I was almost screaming.

I was...

When I was a new executive in consulting, I built reputation for transforming the way we delivered our change management engagements.  At that point, change management work centered mainly on documenting procedures and developing training for large systems implementations.  It was a cash cow for a consulting company that delivered big expensive customized systems.

Although I developed proficiency in those areas, I didn't do my masters' work in organization communication and doctoral work in organization behavior to write shipping procedures for warehouse management systems. 

I wanted something more.

One project was the turning point for my career and perhaps altered the trajectory of how change management work was conducted.

A Wisdom Story

Near the end of one of these big warehouse management system implementation projects, I got an idea.  Why don't we pitch the job and organization design work to the client?  After all, if the workflow is transformed,...

I love to take walks in the woods.  It's refreshing and yanks me out of my routine.

Yesterday, I walked on a trail.  Slightly uphill so I stopped to catch my breath.  Due to my COPD, I have a recovery routine.  I close my eyes.  Focus intently on taking deep breaths.  I feel my heart slowly backing down to a normal heart rate.  I open my eyes and continue onward.

As I contemplated my Recovery Routine yesterday, I thought about other Recovery Routines in my life. 

I don't have enough of them.

High Performers want to GO.  I see Recovery Time as simply the time between Task A and Task B.   Shorten the Recovery Time and efficiency improves.

Fabulous! 

Get to know your Recovery Routines!  How much time do you need?  What do you do to optimize recovery to get back in the game? 

Here's the tricky part:  with any spike in activity, how do you recover physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually?

YIKES!

I don't...

My maternal grandmother was a hard woman.  German by descent, Mims grew up on farmland, now a suburb of Chicago.  

I have very few memories of "Mims."  Visiting "Mims and Papa's" home in Lake Forest, Chicago, I remember the house being spotless.  

Just look at them in their home!

Mims and Papa

The house looked clean.  Smelled clean.  Felt antiseptic.  Everything belonged in its place.  It felt like everything stared at you with disdain that you were even THINKING of touching it.

And how tempting is THAT?!?

"Don't touch anything" is a tough request for a curious 5-year old.

But I was a good kid.  In fact, some would say charming.

As hard as it was when I went to Mims and Papa's house, I 'colored within the lines.'

I have one poignant memory of my grandmother in that house.  My brother and I were sitting on the back steps facing the small grassy backyard.  Tall hedge on the right which provided privacy from the close sidewalk....