“People inspire you or drain
you—pick them wisely.” Hans F. Hansen
This time of year, with all the bowl games, always get's me thinking about teams. So, let’s say you’re creating a team.
And the way you’re creating it is by looking at different people and choosing
different points in their lives.
You might choose some folks when
they were children; full of energy, fun, innocent and without guile. Others
would be chosen as young adults; strong and athletic, inquisitive and ambitious.
You could choose some team members as older, richer and more experienced.
I’d quickly choose Richard Branson
because he seems to have all those qualities wrapped up in one!
If you were looking at me,
depending on where in my life you looked, and what your team needed to
accomplish, you might choose me or you might not.
In middle-school years, what those
of us with grey hair used to call junior high school, I’d be the last person
you’d choose for anything athletic.
In college, if your team’s goal was
to have fun, I promise you, you’d absolutely want me to be one of the first
people you’d choose.
As I’ve gotten older folks seem to recognize
that I can hold two very different positions depending on the team’s goal. If
the team’s focus is to start or stop something, to find the way through new
territory, I’m your guy. I have no problem drawing the sword and, for good or
ill, being first one out the castle gate.
However, if it’s managing an effort,
doing what might be thought of as the day-to-day stuff, the consistently steady
efforts that keep it all together…I’m probably on the bench for most of the
game. I am learning though, and some very nice people are teaching me the
power of steadiness.
We all have our teams, the people
around us who influence us. Some members we pick, some are picked for us and
some—family—we have little choice about.
So much of life is determined by
who is around us and who we are around on a regular basis. How we look at life,
how we talk, what we eat, how we approach/repel/treat others, what we focus
our thoughts on, what we believe about spirituality, how we look at work in our
lives…those issues and many more are strongly dependent on our contact with the
people on our team.
Who’s on your team?
One of the most important
resolutions you and I can make for 2014 is to be more choosy about who joins or
gets to stay on our team.
Look around. You’re suiting up for
the game right now. Who’s in the locker room with you?
This is a great OD on football
weekend so enjoy it!
See you Monday.