Sunday Story…Plant a Tree

There is a Chinese proverb that goes something like this…the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. So if you want shade you need to plan for it.

 

What the proverb leaves out is all the things that have to happen in that 20 years for the tree to provide the shade. It needs sun, water, and nutrients to thrive and grow. I often use this proverb to illustrate the importance of doing now in order to be who you want to be later. You need a plan, a road map for your success. The work I do today will bear fruit 10, 20, 30 years from now. For the change I want to make tomorrow needs to be different than today and so on.

 

The work you need to do to get where you want to go needs to start now. It will continue until you get to your destination. If you want to be doing something different later, change what you are doing today and keep changing it.

 

Otherwise you may wake up a year from now and find yourself in the same place you are now. And wouldn’t that be a shame if you expected to be someplace else!

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Distinctive

 

Is a choice. You can try to be everything to everyone but that rarely works. You end up in a race to the bottom, a race to homogeneity, a race to see if we can all be the same. Although there is a comfort in sameness, there is also a peculiar lack of interest surrounding that bland thing.

 

I want to stand for something. I want to be clear about who I serve. I cannot serve everyone. I cannot be everything to everyone. But I can stand out to the people who are looking for me and the things I stand for. When you look for me I want to be recognizable from a distance. And when you approach it will be obvious that I am the one you are looking for.

 

I don’t want or need to yell and scream at you to see me. If you are looking I will be seen, I will stand out from the other packages on the shelf. The easy thing is to blend in, to be bland and boring. Standing out is hard and scary. You are all alone on the shelf, nowhere to hide. This is the risk of distinction and like all risks the more often I take it the easier it gets.

 

Make the choice to be distinctive. Serve the people best suited to be served by you. Square pegs don’t belong in round holes.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Who Are You?

 

Deep down, at your core, who are you? Who is your authentic self?

Is it the kind, generous, empathetic person you show up as when you are at your best?

Or is it the cranky, irritated, impatient person who shows up when we are stressed, tired or busy?

 

The first person is who we strive to be at all times. The other one? The one that slips out is the incomplete and less competent version.

 

We can see this in children. They begin as little self centered and egotistical beings. They have no choice. Their world view is small and consists of very few other beings. As they grow and mature their world gets larger and other ways of being come into focus. They begin to grow taller and as they do their view becomes larger and more expansive. The opportunity arises to become kind, generous, and empathetic.

 

As we grow and mature our vision enlarges and becomes clearer. Pity the grown up who never grows up, whose vision remains fixed on the small and the petty and the selfish. We choose to create our interactions. We choose how we show up. Change how you show up if you look back and see a toddler.

 

Show up as the change you want to see in the world.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

7753382412

Sunday Story…Resilience

 

Mental toughness, intestinal fortitude, the grind, grit, unconquerable mind, are things we say when we mean resilience. Resilience is the ability to make things work even when those things aren’t going according to plan.

 

None of us planned for 2020 to have a worldwide pandemic that would see people thrown out of work, get hospitalized, or die. Did you wilt, roll over and give up, or did you figure out how to thrive? That’s resilience. That’s mental toughness.

 

If there is one skill, one trait that we all can get better at it’s the ability to roll with the punches and come out swinging. Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face. But once you get hit in the face what do you do? Quit? Give up? Or do you take it on the chin, say “good one” and then get back after it?

 

We all get hit in the face. It’s part of the human condition. Adversity happens. It is inevitable. Everything is not always going to go according to plan. What you do when it doesn’t is a measure of your resilience, your grit. How do you measure up?

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com    

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

 

Sunday Story…The Department of Customer Delight

 

Years ago I had a friend who worked in the customer service department of a property manager’s office. She called it the department of customer delight. Her job was to make sure each person who called had a delightful experience. When you approach each interaction with that goal in mind it makes the job so much more rewarding.

 

Imagine what might be possible if we started each project with the idea that what we would create would delight and amaze? It wouldn’t just be utilitarian, although it would. It wouldn’t just be designed to do the intended job although it would do that. It would be elegant and simple and practical.

 

If I design a thing or an experience to perform as needed but also make it beautiful and delightful we will be drawn to it. If all you want is the bare bones you can get that easily. But if you want a thing that combines form and function and delights the user then you have a thing that will be irresistible.

 

We can always choose to make things that work. But choosing to make things that delight and work? That will be a thing worth seeking out.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Just Looking

Also known as “shopping” or “browsing,” just looking is code for “I’m really not terribly interested and just need to waste a little time aimlessly looking at whatever is in front of me.

 

This is true of many pursuits…the student who is just putting in the time versus the one who is truly engaged with the subject matter…someone who is just turning the pages of a book versus someone who is making an effort to absorb and integrate the lessons contained therein.

 

The difference between the two is obvious and palpable. When we are committed amazing things take place…learning takes place, a shift takes place. We are open to profound and useful lessons. We can formulate questions that probe and expand understanding.

 

Too much of our time these days is spent “browsing” and maybe that’s why all those things you use on your computer and phone to go places are called browsers. They are designed to facilitate you “just looking.” The more you scroll and semi-engage the more likely you are to stumble on something, anything. If you are committed you won’t mindlessly scroll through anything and browse past what’s really important.

 

The question isn’t what’s next; the question should be what’s important. Find that, stick with it, and move forward instead of treading water and doom scrolling.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Careful what you wish for

 

Are words we have all heard many times. Usually, we hear them as a caution…as in it might come true.  Or when I wish for rain and get a deluge or I wish for heat and get a drought. Those are the unintended consequences that might happen should my wish come true.

 

More often than not, though, what I wish for doesn’t come true. It remains as a thing out there that I want to have happen. But all the time and energy I spent wishing it got lost in the process. I can’t control the lottery. I can wish to win it and spend all my time spending the riches I would have should I win it. All that focus on how I would spend my 100 million dollars is an exercise in futility. The time I spend wishing is time I could spend on more rewarding pursuits and more productive work. Work that may lead me to earn my 100 million dollars or being rewarded for pursuing the excellence I am wishing for.

 

A wish that shifts my thoughts and focus, though? That is a wish worth wishing for.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412