By Michael Armfield
I can hardly believe that it is already April. The first quarter of your fiscal year is done. Spring break for your children has come and gone. The Northeast is beginning to thaw out and the traffic is beginning to subside. Your favorite beach or park is once again becoming your quiet destination where you can enjoy, relax, and play. The fundraisers and galas are wrapping up and you have a haunting suspicion that summer is right around the corner.
“The Season” that you and I experience each year can be a wild adventure. It can represent your greatest opportunity to earn as the snow birds feed our local economy. It can be filled with joy, laughter, and too much red wine. It can be the greatest time of your life.
It can also feel as if there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. It can bring your greatest fears to the surface. “Am I enough, am I working hard enough or smart enough, am I being the best parent I can be?”
The funny part about life is that we all face similar challenges. In your work and in your life balance is the key to happiness and fulfillment. The challenge that you face is that balance is always a moving target. What worked yesterday may not work today. The diet you worked hard to stay within last spring may not allow you to lose those extra pounds that you desire this year. The marketing channels that produced tons of prospects last year may not cut it this time. The way you taught your child yesterday may not work today.
Are you exasperated as you read this? Do these themes hit home for you? If so, I have great news for you. You are not alone, you are not strange. Rather you are a human being living in a challenging world. Is that good news for you? Many of the talented and exceptional clients I have the pleasure of working with tell me about how peculiar they feel. They ask me, “Is there just something wrong with me”. They often ponder why can I not just “get it right?”
The challenge is not “getting it right,” though, that is a very seductive target to shoot for. The challenge or what I like to refer to as the “opportunity” is to set realistic expectations for ourselves, for our business, and for our family.
We have been fed a lie. The lie is that if you just work hard enough, are smart enough, are attractive enough, then and only then will you be happy.
I have had the blessing to have been able to travel across our globe. As I rewind my mental tapes and think about what that has taught me, I continue to stumble across an astounding observation. In the poorest regions of this globe I have met some of the happiest people. How can it be that a family of 10 living on a dirt floor in the square footage of most of our sheds could be so happy? They have nothing, their children do not have the newest video game system, they do not have the 2.5 children and the white picket fence that we know as the “American Dream,” yet they have contentment. This month I want to challenge you to slow down and take an inventory of your life. Take an inventory of your peace; take an inventory of whether or not your daily choices are resulting in what you truly desire. As you do this, you may find yourself a bit sad, even a bit depressed. These emotions are Ok; in fact they can become the spring board to a new season in your life if you do not suppress them, but embrace them instead.
My grandfather told me many years ago that you will never change anything in your life until you acknowledge the pain that your choices have created. So, how about you? When you rewind the tapes about your family, your business, your relationships do you smile or cry?
If you smile then I applaud you and your choices. I encourage you to go find someone who is hurting and share your journey with them, lend them a helping hand. If you cry, I encourage you to slow down and ask yourself if you want to continue living this way. My prayer is that you will honor yourself enough to forgive yourself from the perfection you have been striving to achieve.
I want to encourage you to become the best version of yourself today. I am not suggesting that you repeat what you did last year. I am suggesting that you pause long enough today to look backwards and evaluate where you are at in life. When you slow down and look in the rear view mirror do you like what you see?
Should we be talking?
ArmfieldGroup, Inc.
Helping leaders Achieve there dreams
561-541-3466