Recently, my wife and I went to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. It was a very relaxing, enjoyable and amazing week. I'm not normally a beach-loving vacationer. I love getting to the mountains and hiking in the forests on some challenging trails. This time, we decided a beach vacation may be the ideal setting.
After a day of travel and driving a car on the left side of the road at night on some steep, twisty roads we made our destination. As stressful as the journey started, we quickly got into the Caribbean beach mode!
I had hoped that a week on the beach would relax me enough to create a clearer picture on my consulting and coaching career. The picture above is one I took through the window opening of a house ruin on the breach we stayed on. I was amazed as to how good this picture turned out. There is a lot of imagery to my work, though the truly enlightening part is to see what I'm looking at and to be present with it. Nature continues to reveal amazing insight to being present and observing the moment. I've been struggling with the direction of my work. This reminds me that the waters are calm and to be patient and to stay committed to my direction, while still allowing myself to rethink, change course and enjoy the ride!
I was able to finish reading "Think Again" by Adam Grant. I try not to rush through books as I forget important points. Instead, I'll read some and then stop to reflect. This time at St. John allowed me to do just that. Grant, towards the end of his book, writes about happiness and its relationship to work and, further, depression. "One possibility is that when we're searching for happiness, we get too busy evaluating life to actually experience it." We all seem to be so busy trying to find happiness, we forget to see, hear, taste and touch what's all around us and we miss out on so much. Slowing down to enjoy, reflect and connect with what's around us is so critical to me. I have to remind myself to not be in a hurry, but to savor the moments that life has given me. "A second likely culprit is that we spend too much time striving for peak happiness, overlooking that happiness depends more on the frequency of positive emotions rather than their intensity. A third factor is we overemphasize pleasure at the expense of purpose." That's a great reminder to stay on course, even if the winds of change alter that course. We will be more successful in pursuing our passion, rather than pursuing happiness. "A fourth explanation is that Western conceptions of happiness as an individual state leave us lonely." Whoa! Say that again? That happiness can leave us lonely? We have much to learn from Eastern cultures that "pursuing happiness predicts higher well-being, because people prioritize social engagement over independent activites."
So, happiness is a team sport! I'm all about that! I've been pursuing to people to work with from the get-go. I'm working with my (new) friend Jake Steger with REC Business Solutions and with Alycia Huston, Paddy Moran, Joy Sherrill and Dr, Sharon Adams - The Culture Cru (https://theculturecru.com/about/). I have a better sense that I'm on the right track. some things just take time. I need to be patient and watch for the changing tides. Most of all, I need to make my work a team sport!
