Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I took a couple of weeks off for Spring Break and getting back on the horse is … not so easy.

I find inspiration in a number of places; a sticky sentence in a book, a good sermon, an interesting conversation with bright or controversial people. The guy that sat next to me at the coffee shop today might inspire a message on chronic halitosis. Does no one give him honest feedback? While tempted, I know it would simply be rude. I digress…

I started reading a new book on the fourth quarter of life the other night. The word intentionality struck me and inspired me to share thoughts, so here it is.

Let’s start with how ChatGPT lays it out:

Intentionality refers to the capacity of the mind to be directed toward something—such as an object, thought, or state of affairs. It is a fundamental concept in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, often associated with the way mental states (such as beliefs, desires, and perceptions) are about or represent things beyond themselves.

The term originates from medieval Scholastic philosophy but was revitalized by Franz Brentano in the 19th century, who used it to distinguish mental phenomena from physical ones. According to Brentano, all mental states are characterized by their “aboutness”—for example, thinking about a tree, wanting a drink, or fearing the future.

In contemporary discussions, intentionality is explored in various ways:

• Philosophy of Mind: How mental representations relate to the external world.

• Cognitive Science: How intentional states are realized in the brain or artificial systems.

• Phenomenology: How consciousness is always directed toward something, as emphasized by Edmund Husserl.

• Artificial Intelligence: Whether machines can possess genuine intentionality or merely simulate it.

———————————————————————

I’ll take Cognitive Science for 1000, Alex.

I always saw it as a focus on a state of affairs. It could be your marriage, your career, or raising your children where you never lose sight of what is most important to achieve the goal you set out for yourself. Was it survive, thrive or dominate?

Was it sustainability? To be loved? To do the right thing? Or was it stay out of jail?

What is your intention?

What are you doing, with intentionality?

How is that working?

Who do you look to for advice regarding staying on track or shifting your intentions?

If you are hyper-focused on a singular goal, no matter how noble, you might consider lifting your head occasionally or checking in with a trusted advisor.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I know firsthand or secondhand, people involved in some of the recent air-related accidents and fatalities.

I’ve heard of multiple cancer diagnoses, unexpected deaths, and end of life stories recently.

After going through significant career changes in my own life, watching the news lately gives me pause. One example I heard just yesterday was a former coworker who had been fired twice and rehired twice in less than a week!

These events may not change the actions I take but will likely make me think about them differently. 

For instance: 

-I still fly most weeks. The FAA is not broken … but it needs more attention and support. 

-Health is incredibly important. Most choices do not have an immediate impact but we have enough information and access to quality healthcare that most can live a full life.

-Change is inevitable. I understand the need for change. I have considered myself a change agent and often unapologetically so. Typically requires courage and plan-full determination to right the ship and often you inherit years, if not decades, of conflict avoidance and indecision that leads to the need for change. However, this is not an excuse for lack of civility and compassion.

I read this quote at the top of the blog a while back that certainly hones in on perspective. 

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Has anyone else noticed how it’s taking longer to get over a cold or the flu or whatever so-called common ailments we suffer from today?

A recent news story about the “Quad-demic” of Influenza A, norovirus, RSV and Covid gives indication there is a lot of nasty crap still going around. Maybe things are not so common anymore, but certainly persistent.

I consider myself healthy. I exercise regularly, eat well, don’t over indulge, don’t smoke.  I’ve been to the doctor a few different times  in the last couple of years with a non-productive cough that won’t go away. Usually triggered by something else. This last time definitely felt like the flu caused the problem.

Rest and lots of water don’t seem to be getting it done. My doctor said it might take 5-6 weeks (!) to run its course but with some steroids, we were able to get in front of it and we shortened the window down to about a week.

Being proactive is more important than ever. I sat in a couple of big meetings, coughing due to an agitated bronchial tube. I’m sure most figured I was spreading germs like crazy. Perception is reality. These were meetings I didn’t feel like I could miss. In retrospect, I should have gone to the doctor earlier. Viral or not, the lasting effects of a persistent cough became a real negative.

No one knows your body better than you. Don’t wait for someone to tell you to take care of yourself. Get healthy. Stay healthy. 

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

What’s your next life chapter?

How do you follow up your last major contribution?

Do you have another story in you?

I spoke with a good friend and former coworker this week who came to the end of his run at a company he enjoyed. There were signs that it was time and he methodically and professionally made his exit … and has already started something new! We chatted a bit since he knows I’ve been through a few transitions myself. We all tend to ask the same questions:

•Why me?

•What did I do wrong?

•What can I do to fix it?

as we work through the grieving process.

Once you’ve been through a couple of hard transitions, like an Evel Knievel Caesar’s Palace fountain jump landing (YouTube it for effect) and live to talk about it…now that is an expert in falling hard and getting back up again. And then you realize, it was a lesson, not a life sentence.

In their book

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover

Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette explain the four male archetypes and the difficulty that exists today for men to mature without the benefits of ritual and proper mentors.

Is it possible that if we don’t discover ourselves, fully, earlier in life, that we’re bound to acquire those lessons (through adversity) eventually. Is the hard transition from one chapter to the next more in our control and less subject to fate than we recognize?

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The future has many names

For the weak, it’s unattainable

For the fearful, it’s unknown

For the bold, it’s ideal

Victor Hugo

Have a blessed weekend!

Be bold.

Define your ideal future.

Kiss your Valentine

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

You don’t know how much you’ve been taking things for granted until they are gone. Is it possible to fully appreciate something without the loss? Even if the loss is temporary?

Short story then, not quite as short of a story

I was at a conference last week that became a superspreader based on the feedback from many. I have what is likely Influenza A. I’m through the body aches but the cough will not abate. Disruptive to all of my conversations and my ability to sleep in my own bed. (Yuck.)

A temporary loss of peace does not compare to a loss of mobility; walking, jogging, running, biking, hiking, etc. Our mobility gets taken for granted and for a variety of reasons, when we slow down, get injured, get lazy or uninspired, we lose out and suffer, many times to the point you can’t or don’t recover. (Double Yuck.)

Few people would define themselves as quitters but many make choices that result in prioritizing things that, in effect, take away from health and well-being. 

•drinking alcohol

•smoking tobacco

•watching countless hours of TV

or maybe it’s less obvious

•golfing instead of a 30-minute strenuous workout

•reading your phone on the couch instead of walking / working out with your spouse

•taking the elevator instead of the stairs

Anne and I are getting closer to the end of our full-time careers (she’s 9th inning and I’m fourth quarter). We live in a community with a variety of ages and approaches to pre-retirement and retirement so we see how some fare very well and some, not so much.

Every financial planner will tell you about the Go-go, Slow-go and No-go years. If you are not prepared, your money might not allow you to go where and when you want. Often underestimated, if unprepared, your health will not allow you to go as far and as often as you’d like.

Exercise and activity is not just for the athletic or the overweight trying to change course, it’s for everybody. It’s never too late to start. Get off your ass!

Have a blessed weekend…on your way to a richer, fuller life! So much to see and enjoy, you’re not going to want to miss…a single day.

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I had the pleasure of attending an exclusive company event this week where executives were provided information on initiatives, goals, strategic imperatives and time to network, learn from each other and prepare for the next steps with the organization. It was a wonderful event by all accounts.

One of the many benefits this tremendous company offers is to bring world-class talent to inspire, educate and develop our people.  This year, we were fortunate to hear from Nick Saban. (We were also provided a copy of his book, How good do you want to be?)

By all accounts, Mr. Saban is a class act. He’s a championship winning coach but more importantly, beyond X’s and O’s, he’s a leader, a developer, a recruiter and a culture builder. He may have a reputation of being hard…but it was clear that he is hardest on himself:

•thinks much more about the 3 championship games his teams lost than the 7 his teams won

•starts planning for the next season the day after the championship game (no “celebration relief valve”- he credits this to his father instilling a strong work-ethic)

•was asked how he would describe himself in one word and he said demanding – because he’s a gentleman and didn’t want to use the first word that came to mind

He says there are 3 types of leadership

-Laissez-faire- take things as they are

-Transactional- very results-oriented

-Transformational-developing people/players to be the best they could be

It took him years to evolve from transactional to transformational.

He gave several examples of the development challenges even with top-notch talent. Here is one…

One of his star players passed a fraternity one afternoon and heard racial slurs directed toward him. The player defended himself and ended up in a squad car. The officer brought him to the coach instead of the police station, a deal worked out in advance. (Whether success-driven privilege or a proactive coach taking responsibility for his players, you decide.) 

He asked the player what he was thinking and the young man said he was raised to stand up for himself. Understandable, but…Coach Saban said, “Son, you will enter the NFL draft with your talent. You could go in the first round and make $30M a year or get an arrest on your record, go in the 3rd round and make $3M a year.”

The star athlete said “Coach, you’ll never have another problem with me.”

We don’t all have professional football talent or the financial opportunities that could be realized with good choices, but we each have the ability to embrace discipline, make sacrifices and maximize our potential. It’s not easy but it is attainable. How good do you want to be?

What choices are you making each day to realize your full potential?

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

It’s a fairly common exercise when you are trying to improve your position in life to “begin (the rest of your journey) with the end in mind.” Answering the questions:

•What kind of legacy do I hope to leave? 

•What will people step up to the lectern to say about the impact I made, or didn’t…?

Will your funeral be packed with adoring mourners in a mega church or will you be able to fit your crowd into a small chapel? Will your grandchildren be grown with children of their own or will they even be able to process the service and your loss?

What kind of an impression are you leaving on your family, your community, your company, your institution or your industry?

Were you an investor or a miner or an occupier – just taking up time and space?

Did you generally make people happy, angry or just indifferent?

Truth be told, I’m flying back from a two-day business meeting where face-to-face made a difference and one of the many teams I am fortunate to be part of grew closer together.

Travel troubles were also part of the trip. Taking the last flight out for the evening is like throwing dice at the craps table in Vegas. You really don’t know when you’re gonna roll a “snake eyes”. We were delayed for hours, the sky club closed well before the delayed flight took off and my attention span was gone after leaving it all on the table at our business meeting.

I’m staring out the window of the commercial jet on a clear night with an incredible light show below and wondering…how do I fit into this big puzzle? What will people remember about me? If I am fortunate to leave a lasting impression, will it be the kind I would be proud of? More importantly, if not, am I willing to take the necessary actions to be the person I want to be and be remembered as?

I LOVE my family – but I could share it more often

I VALUE my coworkers contributions but I could lift them up individually and collectively more regularly

I CHERISH my time in prayer but I could be praising Him more consistently

The thought of writing your eulogy is morbid to some and awkward to others. However, the reflection can be transformative. Be honest with yourself, be kind to yourself and think about what you need to do to leave the legacy you’re capable of.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

One of my bosses at the early stages of  my professional career shared his belief that no matter what decisions you made, you would end up at the same (or similar) finish to your career (position, compensation and degree of satisfaction). 

A very successful business friend worked her way to CEO of a $Billion + business then went into a successful second career as a politician. She created incredible value and enjoyed what she did. She argued that work-life balance was not her goal. She might be the epitome of “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

A strategic advisor who I hired, while running one of the businesses I was provided the opportunity to turn around, said more than once, “You make your job as hard or as easy as you choose to.” It has taken me decades to begin to accept that. I felt there were easier jobs and harder jobs and I was drawn to the harder ones.

I was taught as a child in our family businesses to :

•Do the right thing, not the easy thing

•Leave things in better condition than I found them

•Idle hands are the devil’s workshop

Therefore, I don’t idle well. Does that mean that I made things harder than I needed to? Does that mean I don’t know how to relax? Does that mean I could have taken more time off, spent more time with my family and ended up in the same place at the end of my career?

Today, somewhere between the start of the fourth quarter and the start of the ninth inning for me, I think … it depends. 

It depends on the type of effort-was it working smarter or was it working harder? 

It depends on the choices-I sacrificed many, many, many nights away from home to perform work my peers elected not to.

It depends on the amount of integrity-I’ve been accused of coming across as righteous. I see things pretty black and white, it’s right or it’s wrong. No short cuts. The gray always felt like a convenient way to describe when someone applied a liberal amount of discretion instead of following the law or sound business judgement.

It depends on the actions- doing what you said you would, sticking to your convictions, understanding that, especially in a leadership role, you must put the needs of the many over the needs of the few. I believe if I do my job well and take care of the company, the company will take care of me.

Has my approach to my earning years been more idealistic than realistic? Perhaps. 

I live with the choices I made. I work hard to improve on the choices that weren’t as successful as I’d like, and practice gratitude regularly for the countless blessings I’ve received.

Wherever you are on your career path, you’ve experienced elation and disappointments and a whole lot of things in between. You make choices every single day that support where you’ve been, where you are and where you are going.

As you start this year, I encourage you to go through the mental exercise of visualizing your career path. If you could fly a drone with a high definition camera so high that you could see the starting line, the point you are at this very moment and the terrain you’ll need to traverse to cross the finish line, what choices will you make?

-Easy route?

-Hard route?

-Fast pace?

-Slow pace?

-Pay it forward?

-Grab all you can before the music stops?

My advice…

Make a graceful exit. The longer you have to plan, the more graceful, altruistic and exemplary it could be.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

In ancient Greece, there was a wooden ship that Theseus sailed from Crete to Athens. To preserve the ship, when old planks decayed, Athenians would replace them with new wood. Eventually all of the planks had been replaced. So, is it the same ship? Is it a totally different ship?

We are not ships where boards can easily be replaced. What I’m referring to is your habits, your choices, your behaviors, and your reactions to things that happen. 

Do you change them out like decayed boards? 

Do you know when a habit or behavior or reaction is no longer reliable and must be changed out? 

Assuming you become self-aware and do take action, is that still you or do you become new? 

Maybe you have certain boards that decay faster and they need to be changed out more frequently?

What steps do you take to weatherproof those particular boards to reduce the times you have to change them out?

Changing habits is incredibly hard. 80-90% of your approximately 6,000 average thoughts per day are considered repetitive, according to research. Once our story is created and repeated day after day and many times a day, you come to believe what you have reinforced over and over and over. Unfortunately, most of those thoughts are negative (decayed boards), attributed to be a primal survival instinct.

What does any of this mean?

You have the ability to change your boards as fast or as slow as you’d like. Most change very few because it is so difficult. Others continue to maintain their vessel as long as they live for quality and fullness of life.

You don’t have to be completely new in order to be your very best…just keep learning, and adapting to your situation.

Have a blessed weekend!

Eric

Good evening, Team! It’s Friday!

I woke up in a different state and a different time zone than I started out the day before. Throughout the night, I was awakened multiple times by everything from the battery-powered leaf blower to a bathroom break to the innocent-looking alarm clock that a previous hotel guest set to go off, way too early … but once it went off, I was up for the day. Then a text from my dear wife came indicating she was ill and had been up half the night and couldn’t go to work.

At the hotel restaurant, greeted by signs that required that I wait to be seated, I stood while several servers and the hostess held a conversation in a mostly empty restaurant almost out of sight. I made eye contact with one helper who chose to ignore me…. I would have selected a different venue but we were meeting for business just down the hall in half an hour. I walked toward the gaggle of servers and was then seated. I was curt and eventually embarrassed I couldn’t look past the staff shortcomings. The tip did not reflect my situation. The food was (also) below average but I gave a standard 20%.

After our business meeting, several of us shared an uber ride to the airport. The vehicle smelled badly and the driver kept the window open to mitigate the odor. I preferred less wind on the highway but said nothing.

Once in the airport, I had to remind the gate agent of the upgrade I was selected for. Once seated, the family behind had a “kicker” to ensure I didn’t nap. The family across the aisle had a sad baby that probably dealt with ear pain after visiting grandma and grandpa for the holidays so much of the plane learned of the discontent.

We are surrounded by reminders that this world has flaws. Things don’t always go well or as we had hoped or planned. Sometimes the whole day can be filled with things that rob us of our peace and test our patience, leaving me now quiet rather than stewing.

It is at this point that I start counting my blessings.

•I am healthy

•I’m getting home before dark tonight

•I will be able to comfort and dote on my almost never ill wife

•I am gainfully employed

•I am loved

Friends, it was just a Friday. It could be considered crappy or at least inconvenient, but I choose to see it as a good day.

Blessings,

Eric