Do you ever find that you lose track of your most purposeful priorities in the crush of day to day operations?
As I headed up to Highlands over Labor Day I was thinking of one of my neighbors who had just lost one of their pets.
They have a pair of Wheaton terriers, Zooey and Mickey, both 11 years old (sister and brother pair.) Mickey had been given a clean bill of health from the vet only a week earlier.
He was on the foot of my friend’s bed after 9pm Tuesday evening when he started hemorrhaging.
They got him into the car and were on the way to Greenville SC, 90 minutes away and the nearest animal hospital, when he died.
It was incredibly sudden and truly sad. Zooey is just moping around now, and my friends have had a steady stream of friends and family to visit to keep them distracted and trying to recover.
Then just 3 days later another neighbor’s cat was attacked by two vicious dogs, one of whom had slipped his harness, the other still on a leash (also bit their owner’s hand.)
Buddy, a gorgeous, orange and white tabby who’d ruled the neighborhood for the last 8 years and been with my friends for 16 years was the hapless victim. He suffered a nasty gash on his side and was breathing raggedly when he was brought into the house.
We got him into a carrier as he was really scared and kept trying to move around.
It was Saturday and none of the local vets were open.
Rabun Animal Hospital was 35 minutes down the mountain and waiting. But once in his carrier, he let go and died.
I’m tearing up just writing this, Buddy was an awesome cat and to lose two precious pet friends in such a short time has been a shock to everyone in the neighborhood.
It’s also a wake up call. It’s a call for me to set more purposeful priorities.
First, I was fortunate to be there for my friends, and while I took my laptop, I honestly never even opened it.
It was more important for me to spend time with them in their grief than it was to work.
(In fact, the idea that one can work anywhere is highly over rated to me. I prefer the idea of NOT working every where, and untethering from the bonds of technology.)
Yes, I did have work to get done, and I realized that I’d rather hustle when I’m back in Atlanta and away from these friends.
I’ve learned in recent years, and this was yet another priceless reminder, that it is the time we take to recharge, relax, and give of ourselves that is the most meaningful.
I’m reexamining my values and resetting my purposeful priorities.
Currently, I’m shifting my business practice to be less virtual and more real. When I am face to face in service with a client, a friend, a colleague, or perhaps someone I’ve just met that I can assist and serve in some way, I feel the most engaged and connected.
All the time I invest virtually with social media and online learning and training leaves me feeling drained, disconnected, and disengaged. While I know it’s necessary in our digital age, I am redesigning my work so that all of the virtual leads to real time engagement and connection.
I’m redefining my purposeful priorities.
There has been a rush to be global in the online world and I love my international clients and that won’t change. I will simply be adding a lot more live components from intensives which are 3 day immersions to boost your business to 7-10 day retreats where we will both work and play our way to more profit.
You are investing the better part of your life in your work, I want to show you it can be fun along with financially rewarding, and how to design it around the rest of your life.
In fact, I’m heading to Highlands again tomorrow to spend time with those same friends. My place is surprisingly not rented this September (check out my luxury mountain cabin if you are interested) and it’s a divine time of year.
I’m going to use it as thinking time so that the doing that comes out of it is more intentional, more purposeful, and more passionate.
Are you giving yourself time to think or are you caught in endless doing that isn’t necessarily delivering what you want most?
I’d love to see your comments here. ALWAYS!
