Good morning, Leaders!  It’s Friday!

I know an emergency physician who, by his own admission, had a good life working 9 nights out of 30 at a prominent hospital in the Twin Cities. He encountered a veteran who was suffering from intractable pain due to a horrendous war wound (bullet through the back) and growing increasingly dependent on opioids. The veteran confessed that smoking a joint overseas took away all his pain but once back in the states, no marijuana use due to its illegality prevented him from removing pain from his life. This coupled with the reality that marijuana is not addictive and you cannot overdose on it convinced my well to do doctor friend that he must commit his professional life to reducing pain that doesn’t create addicts and doesn’t cause potential overdoses.
Inspiring.

I know an engineer who has seen many, many sides of the electric utility business. He’s sold products, he’s managed large construction projects, he’s run engineering and operations crews in union settings, he’s performed system studies, and educated technical people on business-related portions of the business. But his passion in outage management systems (OMS) came during a snow storm in South Dakota on his way home from the eastern part of the state when he was stranded in Wall, SD by highway patrol and the hotel had no power. Being familiar with the local utility, he made his way down to help the singular line manager in the office who was dispatching, taking outage calls, troubleshooting from his desk in a humble, deliberate and committed manner. My friend was moved by his personal involvement in getting the lights back on knowing how the customers pain from the cold and the dark had been relieved. That long “day”, that ended about 3 the following morning, convinced him to dedicate his life to resolving outages and build reliable outage management systems for as many utilities as he could affect.
Infectious.

I know an executive who started with nothing more than a dream of being “successful”. Not knowing what that really meant, he had blind aspirations, driven by material accumulation (often viewed as security) until this one day…after years of chasing, volunteering for every possible challenge to prove himself, educating himself, putting theory to practice, critiquing performance, seeking opinions from experts, analyzing, adjusting, adapting and answering questions like
•what good was and what it took to be considered good by most?
•what influence was and where to exert it?
•what paying it forward meant and how to make it sustainable?

…he had to admit his pursuits had been somewhat hollow. Beyond helping his spouse raise children; providing a roof, shoes, food, a spiritual environment, a guarantee of a higher education and the gristle in the gut to finish whatever you started, the rest seemed to evaporate. What positive impact stems from a bigger TV, a fancier emblem on your motor vehicle or 800 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets?

After recognizing that the plan he was following wasn’t really his … only after the hand of God reached down and smacked him (with affection) as if to say, “Son, I didn’t bless you with these gifts so you could look in the mirror and admire yourself…get your butt back out there and make a difference!
Lead my people, educate the studious, put your shoulder into it and save some souls, uplift, empathize, and inspire! Make my world better.”
Inevitable.

Readers, have you had your “one day” but chose not to take action?
My challenge for you is to reflect back on your life to this point and if you haven’t had it, be aware. If you have had but ignored it, dust off the life lesson and apply yourself. It’s not too late. Tomorrow is the perfect day to start.

Have a blessed Memorial Day Weekend!