When was the last time your heart stopped?

I remember the first time I tasted fresh mango.  The allure of it’s texture, fragrance, color, density and taste has never left me.  Every time I enjoy a fresh mango, I am taken back to that first, virgin taste, and it makes each successive mango-experience all the more fulfilling.

I remember the first time I saw the Grand Canyon.  My heart stopped.  The view literally abducted the breathe right out of my lungs.  My legs undulated at the vastness of it’s size and my mind was stretched by the power of it’s depth.  At that point in time I had never seen a more spectacular, overwhelmingly beautiful site before in my entire life.

I remember the first time I saw my wife on our wedding day.  My heart stopped.  I will never forget what she looked like as she took that first step out from around her hiding place.  I had seen Quinn a million times before in a million different situations, but never had I seen her like this.  That initial, overwhelming gaze into her deep, green eyes as she took her walk down the aisle toward me is something that my mind will never release; it’s too important to ever forget.  We were married on a mountain top on a gorgeous, sunny, June, Appalachian day.  We were surrounded by family and friends, outstanding mountain ranges, flowers, and lovely music.  We were encompassed by beauty, yet no matter how hard everything else tried to stand out, nothing could overwhelm the intrinsic, heart-stopping beauty radiating from my wife-to-be.  I had tasted the goodness of mango, and I had observed the Grand Canyon, but nothing compared to the moments spent gazing at my new bride as she walked down the aisle.  Nothing ever has, and I doubt that anything ever will as long as I live on this earth.

Admittedly, heart-stopping moments can be painful as well.  Maybe your last heart-stopping moment is something that you wish you could forget forever, but the memory just won’t go away.  Either way, I believe that heart-stopping instances are moments that we’re supposed to remember because if they are important enough to remember forever, than they are important enough to tell people about.  The most heart-stopping moments in our lives are the stories which we will tell time and time again.  They are important not only to our lives, but also to the lives of others.  If you have a heart-stopping memory, tell other people about it.  Tell your story.  How else will we ever be inspired?  How else will we ever experience your joy or your pain?  How else will we ever learn?

If it’s heart-stopping, it’s worth sharing.

Happy 1 year anniversary Quinn.

This observation, of course, has not been scientifically tested.  I have no way of proving that we really are or are not in a period of increased high-end automobile sales in Indianapolis.   I simply don’t have the numbers.  However, I do have a plethora of personal observations pertaining to the world around me, and when you’re accustomed to seeing $300,000.00 Bentley’s driven nearly exclusively by James Bond, it comes as quite an initial surprise when you see them pulling up beside you every other day at the grocery store.

I really enjoy the beauty of the Bentley.  There’s just something incredible about the power and design intrinsic to the car that makes it irresistibly hard to ignore.  I like high-end vehicles, and I think that as many people who can afford them and want them should have them. On one condition…

…you first ask yourself why (insert name here:______,why?).  We are perpetually in search of the latest, greatest, fastest, shiniest things available.  We want to partake in shiny trips, drive shiny cars, talk on shiny phones, sleep in shiny boxes, and wear shiny clothes.  The world is full of shiny gizmodos and gadgetos and sleek materials that wet our insatiable thirsts momentarily but always leave us longing for more. Is there anything wrong with owning some or even all of this shininess? Of course not.   But, before you upgrade to that new, slightly better productpalooza or purchase your first, fully-loaded Bentley, ask yourself why.  Why must you have whatever it is that you have to have?

Here’s the Should-I-Own-A-Bentley Test:

1. How much pain is going to be associated with this purchase right now and in 4 years from now? In other words, if I can’t walk in and pay cash for it right now, without thinking about it, then how much am I going to be thinking about it over the next few years (on a month-to-month basis)? Will this decision one day cause me pain?  What’s the Joy : Pain ratio, and are you objectively satisfied with that ratio?
2. Who gets to ride in the passenger seat? If you can buy a Bentley, but you can’t give the homeless woman on the street corner (carrying her entire life on her back!) a ride to her make shift home, under the overpass, 3 blocks away, because you’re afraid she might scuff the leather dash, then you should not own a Bentley. Who you allow to ride in your Bentley says a lot about who you are and whether or not you should own one. If the car becomes more important than the people you could be serving with it, than you shouldn’t own that car.

Nearly everyone has a routine. Even the most complex, on the move, progressive, change the world type of people have at least some aspects of routine integrated into their daily lives. You could probably write out your morning, work, gym or eating routines right now if you had to.

It’s at this point in the discussion where most “well informed, self-help, guru type of people” would tell you to break your routine. Do something new (different) for a change! Instead of taking a shower and then brushing your teeth, try brushing your teeth while you shower! Oh, and while you’re going crazy, breaking your routine, changing your life one shower at a time, try washing your feet first instead of your ears or vice versa if you usually start with your feet.

Sometimes we genuinely believe that if we just change our routine it will somehow magically transform us into new (maybe even better!) people. Don’t buy the hype.

It’s not just your routine that’s broken; it’s also your attitude. You can’t find the time to go to the gym, to spend with your kids, to take your wife out to a great restaurant, to start that new business, to get caught up at work or to make that difficult phone call home. “It’s not me,” you say, “It’s my routine!” OR “I’m bored with life, might as well just get this day over with.”

Don’t single out your routine. Your routine is not what fundamentally got you where you are today (whether that’s a good place or bad); it’s your attitude that did, because attitudes set routines. Not the other way around.

Every day is an adventure to be had or to be lost. The majority of us lose out on the daily adventures because we become so focused on our routine, instead of our attitude, that we actually morph into our routine. We become our routine, and instead of us using it for greatness, it uses us to accomplish the only thing it can: Boredom. Your routine will rule you if you don’t change your attitude towards it.

Those who control their routines by controlling their attitudes see things differently. They see every occurrence, every moment of life as a blessing, as an opportunity to reach out, to help, or to meet someone elses need. They don’t allow their routine to suck the joy or life out of them, instead, they impart life and joy into their routine, thus giving them purpose and drive to do big things and serve in big ways.

Can your routine drag you along, give you a life of boredom and an escapist mentality? Of course it can. But, your routine can also be used for greatness, to positively influence people and to accomplish amazing tasks which you never before thought possible. The pertinent difference between the two?…Your attitude.

Don’t let the adventure of today die. Embrace it. Engage your routine with a positive, keenly-seeking-out-others type of attitude and live this day to the fullest extent. Further more, if your routine does so happen to need a change, let your transformation of attitude lead you there and not your desire to change simply due to boredom.

There was a time when sales department pep talks, employee rallies, motivating managerial sessions and corporate weekend getaways went something like this: Times may be hard now but just keep doing what you’re doing. Work hard, don’t give up; eventually things will get better. We will come out of this down time (together!) stronger in the end. In other words, demand for what we currently offer, how we currently offer it, will come back.

Rah Rah Rah and the crowd went crazy…kinda.

The effectiveness of perpetually doing whatever it was that we did yesterday in order to guarantee our continued future success tomorrow is quickly becoming, well,…ineffective.

We live in a world where demand for the old, boring and slightly unusable is nil. We interact in markets where doing the same thing over and over and over will not successfully endure. On the contrary, fortunately, we also live in communities where new, fresh and innovative ways of doing things are embraced and loved by an ever growing number. If you are exerting energy to maintain a status quo, trying desperately to solve problems and challenges from outdated and overused platforms, then you are going to disappear. You will be left where you currently are…in the past. We must be willing to embrace transition and change appropriately and accordingly, never sacrificing our values for a quick dollar or following, but always willing to change in order to get better and to help more people more efficiently and more effectively.

If you are (or quite probably now were) a newspaper company who believes you can just keep printing newspapers, and that eventually demand for your paper will go back up…you are going to lose. If you are a car company that believes it can keep manufacturing gas guzzling SUV’s, and that the demand for your vehicles will eventually go back up…you have already lost. If you are a small business that believes it can make do without an amazing website/blog, and that your customer base will continue to find you and use you regardless…you are going to lose. If you are a band who believes that your primary source of revenue over the next two years is going to be album sales, and that you don’t need to find a new creative way to generate cash…you should probably just stay in your parents garage.

Waiting it out until demand for your product or service comes back doesn’t work any more. Why? Because someone else out there is already figuring out a way to do what you do, better. Someone else is out there changing what you provide in order to make it easier and faster and more fun.

If we resist (aggressively fight!) change, then we are going to lose, and we are going to lose quickly. We must adapt. We must continually get better. We have to understand the ever fluctuating attitudes and desires of our followers, clientele, friends and co-workers, and we must evolve to meet them.

Embrace positive change, keep up with how it’s happening, leverage it to the best of your ability, come out of the hard times better than you were going into them.

I’m reading Tribes by Seth Godin and The Book of Acts from The Bible. Both of these books contain stories which pertain to amazing and courageous leadership and fighting the status quo in the face of adversity. I recommend them both for those who yearn to lead.

Let’s face it, the time for making “Excuse Soup” has come and gone. “Excuse Soup” is no longer made in most marketplaces, sold by most companies or bought by any visionary leaders. If you want to make excuses, fine, but you will eventually be replaced by someone who won’t, by someone who will find a way.

What’s your excuse?

If you really want what you say you want shouldn’t you be on your way towards getting it? It’s time to either (a) go full force towards getting what you want (regardless of whether or not you experience setbacks along the way) OR (b) reconfigure what it is that you truly want.

What do you want? I don’t care if you want to pay cash for a new Jaguar XKR in 6 months from now or if you want to completely redesign your church’s website or if you want to be a Fortune 500 CEO. However, what I do care about is that you come to a greater understanding of what it is that you genuinely hope to do; what you are truly passionate about, what you really want. There’s nothing wrong with wanting something. Nothing great ever happens unless someone like you first wants it to.

Alright, go make it happen. No more excuses. If you’re not going to do it, someone else will. Someone else will reap the benefits, the cash flow, the thanks, the free time. Someone else will take advantage of your excuses. They will serve in your place. They will help more people. They will make more money. They will have a larger impact on their communities. They will change their cities for good.

If you’re still making excuses, do yourself a favor, change the ingredients you’re throwing into the pot. If you want to stand apart, go become an expert at something while everyone else sits around cooking “Excuse soup”.

We love to talk about movements, to visualize being a part of something greater than our own selves.  However, with every great movement, there will eventually come  a great sacrifice.  Is it possible to jump into a movement on the upswing?  Sure it is.  We could all be haphazard followers who throw our hats into the ring at just the right time in order to make the “appropriate” appearances, never sacrificing much of anything; but, in order to lead, to truly start and be an intricate part of a great movement, we must be willing to sacrifice.  If a movement is worth starting or being a genuine part of, then it is also worth sacrificing greatly for.

Jesus, in lieu of Easter weekend, whether you believe he was whom he claimed to be or not, still presents an amazing example of what it is to be a movement.  Jesus, according to the Gospel, had a following worthy of a king, and he was well poised to take control, to implement his influence in ways people with access to great potential power usually do.  However, Jesus’ mission was not about power, it was not about influencing a nation for his own gain, or to acquire great affluence.  His mission was associated with something greater than anything on earth could ever offer him.  His mission was about saving people, offering them hope and forgiveness and thus, a way to God, to spend eternity in heaven.  His movement was well organized and well executed, but in a somewhat abrupt turn of events (at least through the eyes of his followers) his mission realized its core reason and successively lead to a great sacrifice.  Jesus sacrificed his very life for his movement.  This sacrifice was, and to many people around the world, still is, the crux of his movement.  We celebrate Good Friday and Easter weekend fundamentally because of this sacrifice.  His sacrifice lead to an even stronger movement which still thrives today.

It is crucial that we engage in or start a movement which is worthy of sacrifice, worthy of being an intricate, available and working part of.  All great movements are worthy of such things.