Hi Friend
One of the things I love about my job is the opportunity to continuously learn. Every client opens access to a world I may not have had entered before. That was the case this week. I was back with Sletten Construction, an ESOP based in Great Falls, Montana. I was with them last Friday in Las Vegas because they have a ton of projects and employees in that market.
This week though I flew in a day early and got to tour some of their build sites. I’ve been to a few other cities in Montana, but this was my first time to Great Falls. It’s gorgeous, as you would expect. The mountains, the river, the plains… it’s got all the differing topography in one place. Plus there is still snow.
I went to a water treatment facility that is about six months from being completed. It was fascinating, to say the least. I’ve had running water in my homes… well, ever since I was born. However, I was ignorant of the process it goes through to be made safe for human consumption. I could walk you through the whole thing, but I’ll refrain.
The most interesting thing I learned about was flocculating. It’s an element inserted into the water (before the filter) to cause microscopic particles that need to be removed from the water – to cling together – thus, this clinging clump becomes heavier than the water so it drops to the bottom. There is a trough at the bottom to catch and remove this clump, which is referred to as sludge.
Flocculate My Soul
If it’s not evident, I just love the sound of this word. Please say it out loud. It will make you smile. I’ve been using it in a variety of ways with different tenses, since I learned of it. I definitely incorporated it into my message on Friday.
Imagine it though… inserting something into our soul, that causes all the sludgy things to gather together and then exit our system permanently. Who wouldn’t want that???
Fortunately, for you my flocculating friend, I know of such an element: Accountability.
I have discovered over the past three years of my life, having a group of guys who know the inner workings of my soul, has captured in so many ways limited thinking, beliefs, lies and perspectives that contaminated my very being. What’s completely intriguing to me is how these flocculants are utilized to capture toxins that are too small to be filtered out. They are nuanced minuscule characteristics that require an atomic-level approach.
I don’t mean to brag, but this team of guys I have deeply love me. They have had spirit and soul scraping conversations that got to the molecular level of my motivations and actions. I’m forever grateful.
Be a Flocculator
Offering someone that level of relationship is risky, because the sludge gets on you. When we dig around in the infinitesimal tiers of our very essence what coagulates can be an unexpected murk. Don’t be startled, that’s the point.
A Flocculant must require:
Abandoned Candidness
Persistent Transparency
Painful Truthfulness
Conscious Considerations
Extreme Exposure
Committed Willingness
If we’re going to make ourselves accountable, these things must be available. If we’re going to hold someone accountable, they must be mandatory.
Instigating Ideas…
1. Please find a way to use the word, even if inaccurately, today.
2. Who have you invited into your tank to help remove the sludge?
3. Do you need to invite someone in?
4. Are you willing to walk with someone through their sludge?
The filtration system is a three-tank-process. These tanks are HUGE concrete rooms holding 800,000 gallons of water. The first two tanks are flocculants. The traditional filtering process isn’t even applied until 2/3rds of the effort has been made to extract the tiny tiny particles. The reality of trying to make changes in our life at a behavioral level is useless, unless we spend a majority of our effort at the DNA level of our identity.
Flocculate This!
This water treatment facility is serving the Chippewa Rocky Boy Tribal Reservation, 42 miles away from the plant. There are 28 million gallons of water flowing from the start of the process to final use in the community. Flocculating is just ONE PART of the process that gets us to our destiny. It is THE FIRST step however. If those little bitty critters of our soul aren’t dealt with directly, they’ll keep showing up time and time again along our journey. They become more debilitating as time goes on.
I hope this week you make a conscious effort to invite some Flocculators into your life. You may not even realize some of the toxins dancing around your soul. More likely, however, is that you absolutely are aware of them, because they keep appearing in the most detrimental and destructive ways. Be flocculated my friend…