Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I work out … and if you’ve followed me at all, the last 16 months, I’ve taken it seriously. I have several “secret weapons” I’ve shared; a supportive spouse, an Oura ring, a couple of blogs I follow (like Dan Go and Luke Carlson), I do blood panels outside of my primary health care provider and I studied macronutrients to better understand what fuel I should be adding and what shit I should stop consuming. A friend I’ve known for 5 years but haven’t seen for 6 months said a couple of weeks ago, “You look good!”. (Feeling good, Lewis!)

The biggest contributor for sticking to a regimen is my trainer. When I started, I had pain that simple stretching wasn’t taking care of. We found the right mix of things to do to eliminate that. He starts each session with an enthusiastic greeting and a basic question, “How’s the body?” We go from there. Customized, work through the pain, focus on the weak spots, boost the confidence, build rapport along with muscle.

Earlier this week I got a text. He and I have a flexible system and we try to be timely and respectful if we are unable to make a previously scheduled commitment. This one came in 2 minutes before we were supposed to start the workout. I was disappointed because I look forward to our sessions. This wasn’t a dog-ate-my-homework excuse, it was someone hurting, dealing with a private health concern, physically and mentally locked up and couldn’t move off the stairs he found himself sitting on.

I had a few ways to respond; 

•Thumbs up emoji

•OK

•Thanks, sorry to hear, see you Friday? 

…but none of those would have been right, or compassionate.

I sat down after my stretch and warm up and started typing. I shared a personal story that was similar, I eased his concern about missing our session, reassured him his choices were understood to be best for him at the time, added some humor he commented later was a help to get unstuck.

What does this mean going forward?

We all deal with difficult situations and empathy (yes, I’ve had training on this subject) goes a long way toward understanding what people are facing instead of being pissed that someone missed our expectations.

In business, compassion and commerce collide regularly. “I can’t afford to be nice” is bullshit. Instead you should be thinking,

“What if this was my [kid, spouse, close friend]?” 

How do I want them to feel? 

What kind of relationship am I willing to invest in here?

Do I extend trust or do I hold the line and lose the audience?

I was raised … tough, but fair.

I’ve become … fair, but trusting…with limits…starting out with more compassion.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric