Hi Friend
This has been a rather extraordinary week. Though nothing over-the-top transpired, the few above average experiences combined to paint my whole week stellar. My good friends David & Erin joined our team virtually on Wednesday to watch me run through my message Empower Through Confidence. I’m delivering it in three upcoming conferences and want it to be dialed in.
It’s the message built around climbing my first 14’er in Colorado. I love how it’s morphed and feels really useful both personally and professionally. I hate how insecurities shrink people’s lives! I got a ton of feedback which is making it way more impactful. I’m grateful for observations & critiques that make me better!
I love Stacy Dykstra. She is the CEO of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. She’s been there a couple of years now and is such a killer leader. Can I tell you something else? I love Katie Fitzgerald, who was the previous CEO and is now up in Chicago playing the role of CEO for the Ronald McDonald House Charities global organization. One more… I love Rodney Bivens, the founder of the Food Bank and CEO for 38 years! He retired about 9 years ago.
Rodney was the one who originally brought me in to partner with them to define clearly their culture. That’s what he wanted his lasting legacy to be after he was gone. It worked. Fortunately, I’ve gotten to stay close to the leaders and organization for over a decade. Stacy and I had a late lunch this week, which is why I bring all this up.
RELATIONAL SEASONS
It’s interesting to look from an outside perspective, knowing all three of the CEO’s. Each one of them deeply love the Food Bank, the people who work there, the mission, the partners and the clients served. Yet they’re styles and approaches to achieving the same goal are drastically different.
I wonder if in our life, we could step back from it and observe the different characters who play (or played) a significant role, would we recognize and appreciatethe value of their contribution for this season? I wonder if we thought that way about ourselves – that we are in a person’s life only for a season – are we bringing everything we can to bear goodness on them?
FOR SUCH A TIME
I love the origin story of that phrase: “Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” It’s daring, ballsy and bold – not the phrase, but the course of action set in motion from it – well the phrase is kind of too. I can see how each of the CEO’s are exactly what the Food bank needed in the time they were there. It’s true of our lives too. Who are your closest five relationships? Who knows? I do. You are in their world to be brave and make a big impact.
Time and time again, we tend to only notice our opportunity once it has passed. Or we don’t appreciate the people in our lives because we forget it’s seasonal. When I was younger, I thought every relationship was a life-long endeavor. When they changed, I was devastated. I try to let this understanding fuel my intentionality with the people currently in my life. Do you?
Instigating Ideas…
1. List five current relationships, outside of your family, who you impact or impacts you. Be.More.Intentional.
2. Volunteer at a Food Bank in your area.
3. Review the last 10 years of your life. Who has come and gone? Be grateful.
4. What is being asked of you in such a time as this?
Transitions are hard. Since we only know the season we’re in or our previous ones, moving forward into a new one is scary. It also is difficult to imagine. When Rodney retired, all anyone had ever known was him as the leader. It was unfathomable that someone else could fill the shoes of the founder, innovator and force! Yet, she did. And then some…
This weekend was the biggest, unexpected relationship change in human history. There was a group of men and women gutted because they couldn’t comprehend the season ending. Yet the one to follow was exponentially more rewarding and impacting. Don’t fear the change. What’s to come might just blow you away.
ALL IN
Go all in on your current relationships. Who knows how your daring, generous, committed investment may transform their lives? Who knows how long you may have that opportunity?
When we go all in it creates a satisfaction knowing we contributed our best. So when the relationship changes there’s a sense of peace. You know as well as I do the feeling of regret that can haunt you after a relationship changes; when you realize you didn’t give or receive everything that was possible. Go all in!
This week I hope you seize every moment to invest, encourage, challenge and appreciate the relationships currently in your life. Remain grateful for what has been and what’s to come.