"The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker, business/management expert

(This quote gets attributed to Abraham Lincoln, too.)

Too bad the 🎱 and a 🔮 cannot really help you to predict the future.

Bummer, right?! 🤪

This quote continues to resonate with me after many years.

How do you create your future?

I offer that it's all about being intentional.

👍 the choices you make

👍 the media you consume

👍 the small steps you take

👍 who you aspire to be

It's a never-ending journey.

What are you doing to predict your future?

Choose to create it.

No "magic 8-ball" needed.

Be intentional.

You cover a lot of ground by taking one step at a time.

Create your life.

🍨

This world is messed up. And yet, there is also a lot of good in the world.

We can all help to make our world a good place or at least a better place. A kind place.

We can all spread kindness.

World Kindness Day is celebrated each year on November 13th. Add it to your calendar!

✅

Two of my favorite ways to infuse kindness into someone's day:

🙂 Smile

🚪 Hold the door open

A few additional ways to #inspirekindness:

❤️ Write a note and leave it for someone to find

❤️ Practice gratitude

❤️ Tell someone you love them

❤️ Give someone a hug

❤️ Buy coffee for a stranger

❤️ Help a classmate with their homework

There are SO many ways! How do YOU #spreadkindness? Do you have a favorite? Please share!

Create your world. Make it one based on kindness.

Create your life.

Be kind.

❤️

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

These lyrics from the song "Freewill" by Rush speak to a lot of different scenarios.

Today, I want to consider them in the context of the next U.S. general election.

Please get out and vote. ✅

As election cycles come and go, we have more and more access that makes it easier to cast your ballot.

Please don't let busyness be your excuse.

There are early voting options (including Saturday in many places) and there are absentee options (I believe Oct 31st is the deadline to request mail-in ballots).

Of course, there is always Election Day voting. 👍

Life is full of choices. We make them multiple times each day.

Please make an intentional and conscious choice to exercise this important civic duty. Vote.

Create your life.

🍨

We were on the hunt for a souvenir.

An ornament for our Christmas tree, actually.

On a recent journey, a gift shop had a plaque with an inspirational phrase:

Never leave the house without:

a KISS, a HUG, and a NICE WORD

They sound to me like words to live by!

And they don't cost a thing!

These actions might not occur every time I or others leave the house.

When they do occur, it creates or adds to the foundation and feels powerful.

People also feel respected, valued, and loved.

Let's produce more of that.

Create your life.

🍨

Do you enjoy the movie The Shawshank Redemption?

There are some movies that whenever they show up when scrolling through the channels, I always stop and watch. The Shawshank Redemption is one of those for me and one of my personal favorite movies - ever. The film contains memorable lines and serves as a spectacular story about the power of friendship and even the importance of integrity, resilience, and hope.

If you have not seen it, I recommend adding to your watch list. 👍

One of my favorite lines from the movie is, "get busy living or get busy dying."

💡

I see this as a call to action, to actively embrace life with purpose and intention, rather than passively going through the motions or avoiding growth.

It means making deliberate choices that align with my values and goals and seizing opportunities for fulfillment and growth.

This applies to the day-to-day as well as the long-term.

It especially applies today on #WorldValuesDay (Thursday, 17th October 2024).

I yearn for all of us to get busy living, to put our values into action.

My top values include family, health, connection, integrity, and kindness.

What choices or actions align with my values?

👉 Investing in meaningful relationships by connecting with friends regularly and being present with family

👉 Prioritizing my health by committing to a regular fitness routine, eating a healthy diet, and dedicating time to mental well-being

👉 Deciding to shift my career path to align with my true interests, even though it feels risky and uncomfortable

👉 Pursuing a hobby (see my Thought from last Thursday) that brings me fun and joy

What are your top values?

What choices do you make that align with your values?

My invitation to you is to get busy living.

Choose to embody a proactive, intentional approach to living.

Create your life.

🍨

My hobbies include an interest in the "world's most social beverage."

Beer!

🍺

I get to make beer and I also get to serve as a judge of the beer that others make.

Great hobbies, these activities related to a beverage containing (mostly) four simple ingredients: barley, hops, water, and yeast.

Last weekend, I participated as a beer judge in a local homebrew competition.

I got to spend the day doing something completely different from the rest of the week (and most other days of the year, too).

I also got to meet some judges and reconnect with other judges who I only see while judging at competitions. It's a community.

What hobby have you enjoyed recently?

Was it sport related? Gardening? Crafting? Reading? Writing?

Having a hobby can enrich both your personal and professional life, and enhance your creativity, resilience, and overall well-being.

Hobbies might provide a break from the daily grind and allow you to decompress and reduce stress, perhaps giving your mind a chance to rest and recharge.

Many hobbies also offer opportunities to meet new people and build social connections, which can foster a sense of community and support for similar interests.

👍

I look forward to playing "paddle" or platform tennis soon.

What hobby will you enjoy next?

Create your life.

🍨

Sometimes we get to let love in.

I wrote last week about taking a chance to reach out to others.

The flow can go in both directions. We also get to experience others reaching out to us.

When we celebrate special events in our lives, like a birthday, we get to feel the love from others.

We get to soak it up.

We get to relish the enthusiasm that other people have for us.

It can be hard to sit with the admiration.

When we do, it can warm our soul.

We get to appreciate the kind regard and care directed our way.

With big open arms, decide to let love in.

Create your life.

🍨

I took a chance.

As I was leaving the stadium after a football game at my alma mater (#GoIrish), I saw a man that reminded me of a college professor from undergrad. That was more than three, ahem, decades ago.

I decided to approach him and ask if he was who I thought.

My intuition was correct!

I found out that he only recently retired (2019) after 50-ish years in the classroom. Wowza!

As one of hundreds (thousands?) of students in his past, I did not expect him to remember me (he didn't).

However, as we strolled down memory lane together, he did recall some of the then-groundbreaking things he was teaching - spreadsheets!

As a marketing professor, he recalled the accounting profs asking him what he was teaching because they had not yet begun using the tool in their classes.

He recalled the project we helped him build, including writing macros to help create and automate what we were building.

He took great pride in knowing that I started my career using the knowledge I learned in his classes.

He also took pride in knowing that his project laid a foundation for a lot more technology and software development work throughout my career.

He was blown away that I remembered him.

My intuition said that I probably made his day (my wife said the same thing).

My takeaway from this encounter is to reach out to others.

Take a chance at being wrong.

More important, take a chance getting it right.

Say "hello" and share why you remember them.

Share a little about their significance in your life.

You never know the impact you might have on them when you reach out and share their impact on you, whether it was decades ago or just yesterday.

Create your life.

🍨

A smile. 🙂

We recently spent two-ish weeks traveling outside the United States (across Europe, in fact).

Everywhere we went, one thing consistently presented itself.

Yup. A smile.

🙂

The consistency served as a reminder and reassurance that smiles are universal.

No matter what sounds might get uttered from mouths, we all understand when lips curve upward, teeth become visible, and eyes crinkle.

👍

I challenge you, wherever you find yourself today, share a smile.

Be sure to include the person in the mirror. (Maybe especially that person!)

Sharing a smile does your heart good.

It might brighten someone's else's day, too.

Demonstrate a universal symbol that is warm, bright, uplifting, and contagious.

Choose to smile. 🙂

Create your life.

🍨

It's that time of year.

Many of our kiddos are getting ready to begin a new school year.

We're dropping off our daughter for her second year of college.

There is anticipation and hopefulness as the new school year kicks into gear.

There are good-byes and there are hellos.

There are plenty of "great to see you again!" and "how was your summer?"

I don't recall much about my college drop offs and wonder what my daughter might remember about hers.

I also wonder what my wife and I will remember since our perspective differs as parents.

We're hopeful that our daughter will continue to enjoy her experience. There is excitement for what's to come and an eagerness to create memories.

Our hopefulness comes from having gone through this ourselves, part of our life already experienced. We know what may lie ahead.

Hope is powerful.

Create your life.

🍨

As I get older, things change.

Like my ability to accept things as being good enough.

As a recovering perfectionist, I have often sought flawlessness.

I still seek that elusively high bar from time to time. It's a mighty hard thing to unlearn.

I recently needed to redo the shower caulking in our basement bathroom.

For all intents and purposes, it got ignored until it needed attention (yeah, I like to procrastinate, too). And then it needed attention quickly.

My tendency would have been to do it "right" by cleaning the shower first, removing the old caulking, and then applying a nice new bead of fresh caulk.

Well, I chose to let go of the need to be perfect.

I chose not to clean the area first and I also chose to not remove the old caulk (not entirely).

This was not going to be perfect. Far from it.

It WAS going to be good enough.

👍

I find letting go ends up being less stressful which means more enjoyable. It's not always less stressful in the moment. For me in this caulking situation, the stress was high and only decreased over time after making my choice. It definitely took a little while for me to fully accept good enough as good enough.

When might you benefit from letting go and letting something be good enough?

Create your life.

🍨

What can we learn from the Olympics about chasing and realizing dreams?

Over the previous two-ish weeks, I found myself captivated by this once-every-four-year sporting event spectacular.

I marvel at the speed, power, precision, and creativity that the athletes display.

Stories abound about these athletes from all parts of the world who wait four years for their chance.

They all have the dream to compete against the world's best.

They train and train and train some more.

They do what they need to do in order to be the Olympian of their dreams.

👣

I am no Olympian. I do have dreams. I dream of being a great husband and father, of being a great colleague and friend, of helping others grow. I dream of being someone who makes a difference in our world.

Who do you want to be? What is your dream?

The blessing of our human condition is that we get to decide. You get to decide.

You get to decide who you want to become.

Like the Olympians pursuing their dreams, we must also take action to realize our dreams. We must take small steps.

Who will you be?

What is it that you need to do in order to be that person?

Make that choice.

Create your life.

🍨