Last week was like Christmas came early for me.
My endorphins are still running high as I write this. Last week, after taking 2 months off of water skiing, I got back on the water at Jack’s Travers Ski School in Florida. While skiing well is always a bonus, the way it makes me feel is really why I do it.
Skiing is like a reset. Not only do I get all those feel-good endorphins, I also get stronger through the exercise. Between each pass, I rest and recover, going from super high intensity to fully relaxed. That kind of oscillation is an incredibly effective stress reliever.
Now, I’m going to get analytical for a minute to make a point. My actual time in the course over 5 ski sets was nine and a half minutes. That’s 570 seconds TOTAL. My waking hours for the time I was there was about 64 hours. So, the ski time that made me feel so good was .247% of my waking time there.
What is the point I’m making here? If we are doing the right things, it doesn’t take a lot of time to get ourselves back in balance.
I have a tendency to miss the moments along the way while looking for the milestones on the journey.
Since my trip this week, two subjects have permeated my thoughts: Appreciation and Kindness.
Those subjects came via the activities I did during the other 99% of my time.
I’ve been working on something for a few weeks, and now is a good time to “let the cat out of the bag.”
I’m starting my very own PODCAST in January 2020! And my trip to Florida offered me a chance work on it.
While I was there, I sat down for two enlightening conversations, first with Natallia Berdnikava and then with David Benzel. Both are athletes – and leaders. We talked about balance, performance under pressure, training for success, handling failure, and so much more. The conversations we had about mindset and choice applies in every domain.
We also talked about appreciation and kindness. I’m not going to spoil the surprises from these conversations, but I want to share a couple of the jewels.
Here’s one from Natiallia: Imagine that no matter how hard you worked, you could only go so far. She was raised in Belarus. Living in America has made her appreciate to the very depths of her soul the freedoms we can take for granted.
David shared a story about the impact of kindness. Again, I won’t spoil the story but I’m going to challenge you to look for kindness in the coming week. If you can spot any, create your own. And then give yourself a pause to experience what kindness does to your heart.
I’m so excited to finally start recording and sharing some of the insightful conversations I have the chance to be in.
You might have listened to the podcast that Jen and I did a couple of years ago. It’s still out there and now, Jen is still blogging and podcasting as part of her company Maneely Consulting. I couldn’t be prouder of her.
As we come up on the last two weeks of 2019 (and start a new decade!), I hope you make every moment count and fill it with kindness and appreciation.
My very best to you!