Under the title “The Answer to How is Yes” is the phrase - “Acting upon what matters”. (See photo.) In our daily and work life, how often are we of the perspective that it’s just easier to say no?
I was talking with the pillar leaders the other day about this subject. Amber Pergande wrote me the email below, and I thought it was awesome and exactly to the point.
Every day with my two older boys, I asked them what they’ve learned in school. They then respond by asking me what I’ve “learned” at work. Last night’s response from me was something generic about building notes for doctors. As they were getting ready for bed and brushing their teeth, I looked up at our light in the bathroom annoyed at the dead ladybugs that had been in there for probably the better part of a decade. (I give this light fixture the same annoyed look every night.) After everyone had their toothpaste spit out, I stopped them and said I actually learned something very important at work today. As I balanced on the counter reaching up to unscrewed the glass bowl from the light socket, I explained I “relearned today” that it’s all the little things we do or don’t do every day that make the difference. As we cleaned out the dead lady bugs and replaced two burnt out light bulbs we talked about how this has been dirty forever and we just overlook it. But now that it is clean and bright, and what a difference this will make for us AND anyone who visits us.
Fast forward to this morning. I have been trying to find the motivation to work out. I have gained my Covid 20 and keep making excuses on why I “can’t” work out. Steve recently shared a book quote that came into my head challenging me this morning, “the answer to how is yes”. I drug myself out of bed and made it to the gym. I didn’t get “the best” workout in and had to push through it to complete it, but I did.
Then it was back to the house to get everyone up. My boys do not handle mornings well and it’s always a challenge. This morning my oldest son stopped and actually put his dirty towel in the hamper (this has never happened). I stopped and said, “WOW buddy that is awesome, I didn’t even have to ask you.” He responded, “mom it’s a little thing, but look!”
Going into January, and setting the stage for ISH to be the greatest show, I think we all can do 2 simple things. 1) Be the example. It is a million little things we can do every day to get us back on path. 2) No more excuses. This one will be hard. I can say I do this all the time (the university is holding us back, we have new doctors to get ready, etc…). By challenging each other to answer how with yes we can shift that mind set. It does not have to be perfect, and it may hurt getting there, but we can get back to the culture we are all so proud to be a part of.
