I Wish…

Hi Friend

I’m siting here in pain. Last Saturday after I finished writing you I went for a bike ride at Bluff Creek. It’s a difficult and adventurous mountain bike trail here in OKC, just north of Lake Hefner. I love it! I’ve been riding it off and on for the last 20 years. They changed the first section of it, which made it even more fun. It’s a loop. One time around takes a little over 30 minutes.

I was having an amazing ride, feeling exhilarated by how it was going. I came upon a stair step drop down, with lots of roots that I thought was going to be great. It wasn’t. I hopped down to the first platform, then my front wheel dipped into the second and my whole bike leaned forward, tossing me over the handlebars. I landed on my arm under my chest. It bruised my ribs. Thus my lingering pain today.

As you probably know with ribs, whether bruised or broken, there isn’t much to do but give them time to heal up. I think you’re supposed to rest too, which I tried for a day. However, I also had a big event this week. It’s the fifth year I’ve been part of Case & Associates RED Conference. They let me contribute on some of the creative ideation up front. I host and speak. It’s always super enjoyable!

What I love about it, besides the people – who are just fabulous, is the level of excellence they bring to every aspect of the conference. They’re a family owned property managment company with 30,000 units across six states. They own the buildings as well as manage them. Lavishing goodness on their leaders while creating an empowering environment of delight and trust, is evident at the conference as well as in every day life.

If I shared with you all the specific ways they valued their leaders and created an experience that is unforgettable, it would take up the rest of this letter. Suffice it to say, they thought of everything and a little more.

Quality is in the Details

Generally speaking, I’m not a “detail-oriented-person.” I tend to be OK with that until I encounter the impact it has on the human soul, then I think “I wish I was good at details!”

Thankfully I’ve been alive long enough to appreciate what I can offer with excellence and what I can’t; and what requires extra-effort but is worth it.

“I wish” is such a duplicitous yearning. Besides upon a star, it can lead us towards amazing awakenings or distilled despair. Even without a genie in a bottle, we can make wishes come true. If you say the word out loud – please do that now – WISHING – it’s got a zippy snap and breezy sensibility that feels immediately enchanting. Who wouldn’t want to make a wish and see it realized?

I suspect because it inherently infers no action, it has a less-then-desirable reputation in the land of adults. If all I have to do is blow out candles for it to come to fruition, how can I plan my weekly calendar around that? Even worse, why should someone else receive something so good and not have to do anything to get it – while I’m over here working hard just to acquire the basics?!

Wishing is an activity in Fantasyland.

Goal setting is its equivalent in reality. However, what if we considered wishing to be the sparkled filter placed on top of our goals? What if wishing was the emotional center within our goals? Rarely do we say “we’re setting this goal, so we achieve this sustained feeling.” Wishing retains the child-like wonder towards receiving something, whether earned or unearned.

Of course it is frowned upon by the mature. Tell someone you’re wishing for something and they’ll chastise you about needing to work for it. No magic allowed!

My kids are well versed in the Wish-List, when it comes to Christmas and Birthdays. They are happy to fill it up and hope someone purchases those items for them. When they were younger it was more fun. Does making a wish list seem frivolous to you?

Wish List Parameters

No Boundaries

Quickly Realized

Beyond Reality

Brings Joy

What if our wishes were the seeds for our goals or even better, our future?

Instigating Ideas…
1. Find the emotional center of each of your current goals.
2. Tell someone something you wished for as a kid.
3. Create a list of where you can be excellent.
4. Go for a bike ride.

It’s important for us to be mindful of wishes, mostly so we can be thoughtful about being a Genie. Not just to our kids, but for colleagues, friends, extended family and maybe even total strangers. I wonder how little effort it would take for us to be in the wish-fulfillment business?

The small team handling the details of the RED Conference are all Genies as far as I can tell! I wish I could execute on that level of minutia. I can’t. They can. Amazing Genies everyone of them! You and I don’t have to paint ourselves blue and riff like Robin Williams to be someone who makes wishes comes true. Our own areas of excellence is someone else’s wish.

I just wish there were a fast way to heal ribs! 🙂


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