"Take What You Do; Yourself Lighty"--Dr. Ken Blanchard

 

 

 

 

 

 

This does not necessarily mean learning to tell a good joke. It’s more about reconnecting with something you already have inside you—a sense of humor and playfulness. Human beings have the natural ability to see the funny or absurd side. We have the innate ability to be playful in a fun and kind way with others and ourselves. A wise person said, “he who can laugh at themselves will never cease to be entertained.” So true!

Taking what you do seriously but yourself lightly is a wise approach to both work and life: dedicate yourself fully and responsibly to your tasks, striving for excellence and integrity in all you do. At the same time, maintain a sense of humility and humor about yourself. Recognize your own limitations, laugh at your mistakes, and avoid letting ego get in the way. In other words, pour your energy into your actions, but don’t become self-important or overly rigid—embrace a lighthearted attitude toward your own quirks and imperfections to remain balanced and resilient.

Some people say you should take your job so seriously that even your stapler feels nervous in your presence. But let’s be honest: if you can’t laugh when you accidentally reply-all to the entire company or spill coffee on your “very important” spreadsheet, you might be missing half the fun. The trick is to channel your inner perfectionist for your craft—and your inner clown for yourself.

To truly thrive both professionally and personally, it’s wise to remember that gravitas belongs to your work, not to your ego. When you approach your responsibilities with genuine care, you not only earn the trust of those around you, but you also cultivate pride in accomplishments that are the result of diligence and perseverance. This seriousness is not about being stern or inflexible, but about holding yourself to a thoughtful standard: being present, attentive, and committed to the value of your contributions.

Yet, while you’re building, creating, and striving, it’s equally important to nurture an ability to step back and see yourself with a wry smile. The capacity to laugh at your own blunders or idiosyncrasies is more than just charming—it’s essential for long-term growth and well-being. Self-irony acts as a buffer against stress and perfectionism, freeing you from the weight of unrealistic expectations or the fear of failure. It opens the door to experimentation, learning from mistakes, and connecting with others on a more human level.

By taking your work seriously but yourself lightly, you create space for both ambition and joy; you become someone who can face challenges with resolve and setbacks with resilience. This approach helps prevent burnout and fosters a work environment where creativity and collaboration flourish—where excellence and laughter go hand in hand.

"Angles can fly because they take themselves lightly." --author unknown

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT 

                    Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

Step Beyond Your Comfort Zone: Share Your High School Story and Picture

 

For the Greater Good of Our Class Community

We all know that sharing a high school story and photo can stir up nerves—a hint of embarrassment, a dash of nostalgia, maybe even a bit of hesitation. But sometimes, the best memories (and the greatest growth) come from stepping just beyond our comfort zone.

I encourage you to push through your concern and email me your high school photo, just as others have bravely done before. This small act isn’t about looks or perfection; it’s about connection. It’s about celebrating the journey we’ve all taken, the stories behind our smiles, our old hairstyles, and our once-fashionable outfits.

Your story and photo will help us build a sense of camaraderie, spark laughter, and remind us of the shared experience that brings us together. By participating, you’re not just joining in a class tradition—you’re creating a space where everyone feels welcome to share, reminisce, and support one another.

So go ahead: dig up that snapshot, take a deep breath, and email it for the greater good of the class. You might just inspire someone else to do the same, and together, we’ll turn a simple act into a moment of collective fun and belonging.

 You've got this!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT 

                    Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

The Problem with an Always Urgent Culture (How to Prioritize Your Team's Work)

 

When Everything Is Urgent, Nothing Really Is

Having a sense of urgency is critical for organizational success. Speed is a competitive advantage. Teams who make fast decisions, experiment often, and move to market swiftly tend to be more successful. However, there’s a big difference between having a sense of urgency and a workplace culture in which everything is always urgent.

Are you constantly running from one meeting to another? Or letting your inbox, text alerts, or calendar dictate how you work? When everything is urgent, we end up focusing on doing small, day-to-day tasks rather than on achieving more significant, impactful things.

Constant urgency – the desperate pressure to be doing more, faster – harms productivity and motivation. However, not all urgency is bad. The problem is unnecessary urgencies that distract our energy and attention from the work that really matters.

Moving From a Reactive to a Proactive Culture

Dealing with conflicting priorities is not something new. Already in 2011, most executives (64%) complained that they had too many conflicting priorities.

Rushing and running in many directions doesn’t mean your team is making progress. There’s a difference between speed and hysteria or anxiety. Operating under constant pressure – constantly reacting to external events – turns urgency into a toxic force. We end up spending our days (and nights) dealing with self-inflicted fires.

Moving fast is not an indicator of team success – focusing on (and achieving) the right things fast should be the goal.

Urgent is lazy. It’s easier to label everything as urgent than to take the time to prioritize. Urgent removes accountability from managers who pass all the pressure to the team. People have to work on more "initiatives” just because their bosses doesn’t want to make tough decisions or push back on their respective managers.

Urgent is power because managers often define priorities without involving team members. They confuse what’s important to them with what’s vital for achieving team goals.

Urgent is stressful because managers equate a state of constant alert with high performance. They make people jump from one fire to another instead of doing meaningful work. Thus, they create a culture of grind, burnout, and resentment.

An always-urgent culture focuses on busyness, not outcome. It rewards people who are constantly busy doing something instead of encouraging them to pause, reflect, and think.

As Basecamp CEO Jason Fried wrote in It doesn’t have to be crazy at work, “It’s no wonder people are working longer, earlier, later, on weekends, and whenever they have a spare moment. People can’t get work done at work anymore.”

Not all urgency is bad, however – the problem is when everything feels urgent.

There are always going to be moving pieces. Life is messy. No matter how much you plan, things usually get more complicated. And then there’s people: someone’s priorities, delays, emotions, or agendas always get in the way.

Urgency, when used in moderation, creates traction. It helps break inertia and moves team members into action. However, when urgent is the normal, teams lose focus. They chase shiny objects rather than tackle strategic projects.

As Dermot Crowley wrote in his incredible book, Urgent!, “Urgency is also a useful tool, and without it, we would struggle to gain traction with important initiatives, deliver client work on time, or meet business obligations. Most senior managers use urgency as a lever to drive work forward.” The challenge is that they associate a calm environment with a lack of productivity.

The solution to this dilemma, as Crowley explains, is not to take an opposite extreme position and try to slow everything. The answer lies in dialing down the urgency to a more sustainable level – where the urgency is neither acute (very strong) nor chronic (very long).

The author believes that we cannot eradicate urgency, but we can minimize unproductive urgency and avoid those last-minute things that waste our time. We will never control unexpected events. However, we can control how we react and avoid letting them dictate what is or isn't important.

Avoid falling into the urgency trap – take steps to move from a reactive to a more productive workplace culture.

As Crowley explains, “The urgency trap is where we end up working with too much or not enough urgency.” The reactive zone is where urgency is acute and constant. On the other hand, the inactive zone is where there’s an absence of urgency. The Active Zone is the sweet spot: urgency increases productivity instead of harming it.

In reactive cultures, everything is urgent and important. Conversely, a proactive culture is one in which the organization undertakes to anticipate and act before problems arise. By focusing on the right priorities, they prevent every issue from becoming a fire.

How to Prioritize Your Team's Work

Redefine urgent

When everything is urgent, nothing really is. When leaders label everything urgent, they add unnecessary stress and anxiety, distracting teams from doing meaningful work.

Start by redefining the notion of urgency with your colleagues. Here are some of the questions I use too help my clients reflect upon and define what urgency really means to them and their team.

Does urgent mean immediate or important? How should the team distinguish between an urgent crisis and an important request? Who defines what's urgent: the manager or the team? Where do we need more urgency and when do we need less?

Having a shared notion of what urgent really means will save your team many headaches. Define principles that are easy to observe. That something feels urgent to one member doesn't mean it should become urgent for the team.

Prioritize important work, not just urgent

Use the powerful Eisenhower Matrix created by General Dwight Eisenhower to map your team’s workload and define a course of action. This framework will help you neutralize an “always-urgent” culture, eliminate time-wasters, and make more space for deep/ strategic work.

Once you’ve captured all of your work in the respective quadrants, use this as your guide:

• High Urgency & High Importance: These are your highest priorities. They demand that you act quickly.

• Low Urgency & High Importance: These tasks have a much greater impact on helping you achieve your long-term goals. This is the sweet spot – you’re proactive, decreasing the number of pressing problems and making time for meaningful work.

• High Urgency & Low Importance: These are everyday distractions – daily fires that suck your team’s focus, energy, and time. Delegate to others or deprioritize – especially when someone else has imposed the urgency.

• Low Urgency & Not Important: These tasks shouldn’t be on your team’s to-do list right now. Get rid of them!

This activity is a wake-up call for managers. It provides a clear picture of the actual workload, promoting a conversation about what’s rewarded: Being busy and running from one fire to another, or doing impactful work that matters?

Focusing on what’s important minimizes emergencies, allowing them to be treated with the proper importance before they become a fire.

Pro Tip: If most of your projects fall in quadrant 1 (e.g., High Urgency/ High Importance), try using the Action Priority Matrix. Click here to learn about it.

Who Are You Serving?

One of the reasons behind conflicting priorities is that teams are unclear about who they really serve. They try to satisfy too many stakeholders and end up pleasing no one.

Prioritize whom you serve. When facilitating the team purpose exercise, one of the questions I ask people is: Who are you really serving? Most teams provide services to multiple constituents: the whole company, a specific department, one leader, the clients, the community, etc. However, defining the key stakeholder makes it easier to determine what’s urgent or not – every team should have one primary group they serve, not multiple.

This activity will also help you deal with managers who think everything is important and urgent. The key stakeholder’s needs, not powerplays, should determine your team’s priorities.

Integrate priorities across teams

According to Harvard Business Review, almost 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional. They often have conflicting agendas or legacy processes that hinder performance. Most importantly, individual or department-specific goals are rewarded over collective ones.

Start with the end in mind: What matters the most to the organization?

Define criteria to establish cross-functional priorities. Establishing clear trade-offs will help you resolve conflicting priorities. Use even over statements to effectively prioritize one good thing even over another good thing.

For example, shall your team prioritize urgent work even over important work– or the other way around? Should it prioritize cross-departmental goals even over department-specific goals?

This doesn't mean that one thing doesn’t matter but rather that one matters most. When push comes to shove, your team will know what to prioritize even over what else. Establishing criteria for prioritizing work will save your team many headaches, mainly when conflict arises.

Prioritization is a zero-sum game

Time is a finite resource. No matter how hard you try to squeeze it, there’s never enough to do everything. We don’t get more time; we make time. That’s why prioritization is critical to focus energy and resources on the initiatives that matter.

Unfortunately, leaders often forget to realize that time – and prioritization – is a zero-sum game. They keep adding priorities until everything is essential and the workload is unmanageable. New priorities should replace existing ones, not be added to an already extensive to-do list.

Use this rule of thumb: Whenever you prioritize one project, which one will you deprioritize?

Urgent doesn’t always mean faster. Rushing work or focusing on the wrong priorities can waste your team’s time––especially when they need to fix the mistakes caused by rushing without clear priorities.

Rethink how you approach communication: shift from reactive to proactive.

Synchronous communication is super-fast and works well when there’s a big fire. However, for normal issues, asynchronous communication is more effective. It allows people to design their day around work rather than meetings or calls, meaning they can achieve more.

Prepare for real emergencies

Discerning self-inflicted emergencies from real ones is crucial. It promotes a calmer working environment and induces a sense of urgency when it’s really needed. Also, when facing a real emergency, the team can take it seriously and not like it's just another fire drill.

It’s useful to know how to reach someone in an emergency. An escalation rule can help identify who should be contacted and which specific channel or method to use. This helps people understand that, if the protocol has been activated, it's a real emergency.

When urgency is acute and constant, it can harm productivity. However, a balanced approach to urgency can turn speed into a competitive advantage. Discuss with your team what urgent really means.

"Move fast in the right direction –not in every direction."   

                                                                           --Dermot Crowley

 Check out a related post: Why Busy is Four-Letter Word In Terms of Productivity and Stress

To your greater success and well-being,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

                    Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Insights and Strategies for Leading in a Time of Great Uncertainty and Pervasive Anxiety

  

 

 

 

 

Leading in an uncertain world is a serious challenge facing leaders right now. 

Anxiety is taking a toll on people. American Psychiatric Association research confirms it: anxiety is at an all-time high. Teams spend too much time worrying about things they can’t control.

Leaders are expected to provide certainty even if they have as many questions as everyone else. And the cost is massive.

Anxiety is a productivity killer: It hijacks focus, stifles creativity, and slows decision-making. But pretending anxiety is not an issue? That backfires.
         
The most resilient teams don't waste time trying to eliminate uncertainty — they learn to lead through it. 

Adaptive leaders expand the clarity zone, communicate what they do know, and act with consistency. They don’t get lost in hypotheticals they can’t solve yet.

Here are three steps for leading when you don't have all the answers:

1. Embrace uncertainty:

In his book Managing as a Performing Art, Peter Vaill introduces the metaphor for the uncertainty, turbulence, and angst that shape business dynamics: permanent whitewater.

We must embrace uncertainty, not as something temporary, but permanent.

As Vaills explains:

“Most managers are taught to think of themselves as paddling their canoes on calm, still lakes. They’re led to believe that they should be pretty much able to go where they want, when they want, using means that are under their control.

(They think) disruptions will be temporary, and when things settle back down, they’ll be back in the calm, still lake mode.”

But, as the author explains, we never get out of the rapids — We will always experience continuous upset and chaos.

When you realize the river will never be calm, uncertainty feels less threatening.

2. Read the waters

Though times of great uncertainly feels random and  chaotic — It’s mostly composed of patterns. If you stop and watch a river or waterfall carefully, you can notice that some patterns are quite stable.

Whitewater is formed when a river generates so much turbulence that air is entrained into the water body. It creates a bubbly, unstable current — the foamy water appears white.

Whitewater is exciting but also risky — You can drown in turbulent waters, smash a rock or get stuck in river features. You must learn to read the waters before you jump into them.

Training and coaching helps us understand the different patterns and rules to navigate permanent whitewater. Like in any space, to thrive in an uncertain reality requires formal training.

3. Play

 However, formal training is not enough — We must experience the challenging waters first hand. Through play, teams can test the rules, break them, and mend them.

Playing allow us to get used to practice and gain confidence in a safer space before we jump into more dangerous waters. Ken Gergen calls it ‘Play with Purpose’ — a spirited way of deeply, but safely, exploring patterns that create significant impact in the long run.

The Approach 

To thrive in great uncertainty, organizations and teams must develop a human, adaptive, and innovative culture.

Emotion intelligence → Mindset → Behavior

Teams must learn to manage their — individual and collective — emotions so they can reframe their mindset and, only then, can adopt new behaviors. The following is the framework you can experiment with.

Human (Emotions):
Enduring change happens from within. Self-awareness is key — the more you know yourself, the more you can lead yourself and others.

By increasing self-awareness, we can identify the emotions that are at play. We can choose which ones we want to avoid, and which we want to use on our favor. Addressing our relationship with fear helps us understand why we resist the unexpected and also prepare for it.

Self-awareness help us shift from fear to courage and resilience. Building a courageous and resilient culture matters because it helps people do their best work.

Click here to read a related post: The Leadership "Super Skill" for Thriving in the 21st Century   

Adaptive (Mindset):
Managing our emotions is critical to stop resisting reality. Instead of fighting the uncertain waters, we learn to embrace their nature.

An adaptive mindset requires letting go of perfectionism and expectations. We learn to focus on paddling — what we can control — not on trying to change the reality of the whitewater.

Click here to read a related post: Develop 5 Essential Skills to Lead Effectively in Today’s 'VUCA' World

Instead of trying to dominate whitewater; we need to allow it to become. Focus on what you can control — the input, not the outcome.

Innovative (Behavior):
To thrive in uncertainty, great leaders tap into the humanity in their company and teams. They see and liberate the best in others by creating a safe space for experimentation. Playing is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Click here to read a related post: Experimentation is Vital for Leadership Excellence

Improvisation is a necessary skill to navigate great uncertainty— teams must be able to think on their feet to solve unexpected problems.

Click here to read a related post:  9 Tips for Thinking on Your Feet

Mistakes are lessons to discover what doesn’t work so we can then uncover what will work.

Uncertainty will remain present for the foreseeable future.  However, every time our limits are tested, we can grow and adapt our way through it.

We are all in this together. We are stronger when we fight together rather than on our own. Welcome to the new normal. 

To your greater ability to adapt to uncertainty,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

26 Ways to Savor Life

   

When we get older we start to see the reality of life's fleeting nature. We can use this knowledge as an opportunity to see each day, each moment as a golden opportunity for enjoyment, happiness, and love.

If we live to age 90, from birth to death we have 32,850 days on Earth. Our Earth has been around 4.55 billion years. Our life here is just a blip.

This awareness provokes a lot of soul searching for many of us who are in the "Autumn Years" of our life.  I've thought, read and studied a lot about what comprises a contented life and have determined five areas that are key to enjoying life to the fullest.

1. Living in integrity. This is something you must define yourself by creating your own personal operating system. But in general it includes living in alignment with your values and your personal/religious beliefs; being authentic and honest with yourself and others; and living in balance financially.

2. Making a contribution. Whether through our work or otherwise, we all need to feel we have a purpose and have made some mark on the world. We need to feel that our lives have some intrinsic meaning. Having a passion and sharing it with the world provides tremendous joy and fulfillment.

3. Having good relationships. We need loving, supportive, and healthy relationships with romantic partners, family, friends, and co- workers. We certainly know the impact of bad relationships. Good ones offer us joy, contentment, and connectedness.

4. Being healthy. When we feel good physically, we feel good mentally and emotionally. We we feel bad physically, we feel bad all over. It is hard to enjoy life when your physical health is poor.

5. Having pleasure. There are so many things in this big world to enjoy--more than we could ever experience in one lifetime. If we are living in the framework our integrity, then pleasurable experiences should be pursued and enjoyed regularly--without guilt. Having fun is essential to savoring life.

As you examine these five areas in your own life, remember that first defining your integrity and creating your own personal operating system will make it far easier to define the other four areas. When we live outside of our integrity, it casts a shadow over all other areas of our lives.

Here are 26 ideas for savoring life and living it to the fullest in these five critical areas:

1. Define or refine your values and personal operating system. Know what is important to you, and seek to live in accordance with that.

2. Restore your integrity wherever you have stepped out of it. Make amends, correct the situation, shift the balance. This will reduce agitation and guilt.

3. Be true to yourself. Be authentic. Look for ways that you are pretending, acting to impress, or living out some other person's expectations rather than your own.

4. Examine your job. You spend many hours a day in this job. If you don't love it, or at least like it, you are frittering away a good chunk of your life. This is imperative for a happy life. Take control of your career.

5. Know your passions. If you don't know what you are passionate about, find out. Take the time to do this, and then find a way to regularly incorporate your passion into your daily life. Discovering your passion dramatically increases happiness.

6. Give to others daily. Share your knowledge, passions, skills, and time with someone else on a regular basis. This doesn't require a grand gesture. Impacting one life can make a huge ripple on the world. It feels good.

7. Show kindness. In the smallest interactions, be kind. Choose kindness over being right, indignant, smarter, richer, or too busy. Kindness feels good to you and to the recipient. And it's infectious.

8. Release some stuff. If you have loads of material things that you don't use, release them. Give them away to someone who can use them. This is tremendously satisfying.

9. Release some money. If you have plenty of money, use it for good. Contribute it in a way that makes one person or the whole world a better place.

10. Just listen. Listen to someone's story, their pain, their joyful event, their boring anecdote, their fears. Give someone the gift of really hearing them.

11. Nurture your friendships. Be the initiator. Express your feelings for them. Learn more about your friends. Be there for good and bad times.

12. Be the person you want in others. Define what you want in a relationship, then be that person yourself. Like attracts like.

13. Let it go. Be quick to forgive and quick to forget. Holding grudges and nurturing old wounds is unhealthy and makes you unhappy.

14. Know when to let go. However, some relationships can pull you down. Take a look at those in your life. Is it time to let go? How much energy are you giving away to them?

15. Expand your network. Actively meet new people. They can enhance your life, introduce you to new ideas, pleasures, and other new friends.

16. Love yourself. A healthy love for yourself with healthy self-confidence creates healthy relationships.

17. Communicate often. We so often misunderstand and misinterpret one another. Or we say things we don't really mean. Learn healthy communication skills and use them often, particularly in your primary relationship.

18. Educate yourself on nutrition. Read books, blogs, or magazines about proper eating for good health. Then eat that way. If you are unhealthy, it will undermine your happiness in all areas of your life.

19. Go outside every day. Sunlight boosts your mood and provides vitamin D. Being in nature enlivens your soul and makes you feel connected to the world around you.

20. Get moving. You know this. Get some exercise. Walk, bike, run, swim, dance, stretch, lift weights. You can make it fun. Take care of this remarkable house for your soul.

21. Cut back, simplify, reduce stress. Find balance in your life by letting some things go. You can't do or be everything. Pick a few things, and enjoy them fully. Identify where you are stressed, and deal with it.

22. Find an outlet. There are difficult times in every life. Find someone, a professional coach, counselor, minister, or friend, who can help you through them. Talking about your problems with someone trusted helps you heal and cope and stay mentally and emotionally healthy.

23. Play often. Play shouldn't end at childhood. Have fun regularly. Define what is fun for you and go do it every week.

24. Increase your travel (Local or abroad). The world truly is your oyster. There is so much to explore and see and enjoy. Pick some places that intrigue you. Save your money. Plan some trips.

25. Unplug. Television and computer have pulled us away from real living. Actively reduce the amount of time you spend in front of them. Fill that time with pleasurable activities instead. Read, cook, play a sport, meet with friends, do something creative, make love, meditate, go to the theater, look at the stars, chop wood, carry water.

26. Think less. Be more. Act more. Negative thoughts create negative feelings. Actively seek to stop negative thinking, and just be in the moment. If negative thoughts and feelings are getting intrusive, do something distracting.

Pick one of the activities above and savor it.

It takes thought, planning, and a dose of wisdom to create a happy life--a life that you can savor. Experience teaches us these lessons, and wisdom helps us to embrace them.

May you find joy, meaning and contentment whenever you can.

 

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, energy storage, facility services & maintenance, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

When we get older we start to see the reality of life's fleeting nature. We can use this knowledge as an opportunity to see each day, each moment as a golden opportunity for enjoyment, happiness, and love.