The focus of busy

What is busy?  Each of us have our own personal definition.  It could be getting up and rushing out the door to your job in the morning feels “busy”.  Or it could be the stay at home mother (or father) with a couple of children who has to juggle appointments, nap time, lunch, play dates and a myriad of other daily ventures is equally busy.  Whatever your flavor of busy might be, you’re busy because you’re doing something.  Try to be busy with something you love though.

Focused and busy

When I was deployed to Iraq, I was fairly busy.  I would wake up, run 3 to 6 miles, get cleaned up, eat and then walk around and visit a bunch of Soldiers or prep for a convoy mission.  I was always checking out something.  In the heat of the day after lunch I could probably relax for a little bit, to read a book or catch a nap.  Then I would check out the command center in the afternoon and evening, have a meeting or two, eat, catch a movie and then do it all over again for about 400+ straight days.  Those were long days, some longer than others.  The busyness of those days has taught me that I can handle “busy” and nothing is busier than a houseful of children I’ve come to find out.  Not even a wartime deployment could adequately prepare me for the energy of mutiple children under the age of five.  And that’s okay.

Being busy has the ability to focus you on what is important.  You have no choice but to utilize your limited amount of time and resources in a manner that not only supports the task at hand but your entire life.  Being busy is a good thing.  It gives you focus.  If your busyness is focused on a task that you love to do, you’ll probably feel time just melt away as you conduct your business.  Focus your energy and time on the things and people who you love and you won’t have to toil a day in your life.

Memorial Day 2011

As a Veteran, Memorial Day has a special meaning to me.  I’ve had friends who have made the ultimate sacrifice and I will never forget them.  I will hold their families in a special place in my heart.

On to Fiddler's Green

I’ve mourned for them.  I’ve sat at the memorials while the First Sergeant conducted roll call only to say that final name, knowing that the only answer would be silence.  The silence is so heavy with emptiness because you want them to answer that roll call.  You listen and for a split second you just know that they have to answer.  But they don’t.

I choose to remember the fallen by living my life to honor them.  Mourning is over.  I will never forget but now is the time for living.

Who are you competing against? Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I talked about my time as an ROTC Range Challenge coach and the parallels between knowing yourself and your company before you can focus on competition. You can read about it here.  Today I’ll finish my story about the relationship between you and your competitors.

Knowing who is the best helps focus your team.  In this case, Ohio State University Army ROTC was the reigning champion.  They had unbelievable Cadets at that University.  Their Cadet Corps was well over 200 strong.  They would field two nine-person teams year after year.  The “A” team would win the competition and the “B” team would finish in the top ten or better.  They cross trained with the football team and had vast resources and a proven winning culture.  They were unbeatable!  I have a lot of respect for those Cadets and their leadership who trained them. 

Our goal was to beat them. 

It can take years to accomplish your goal

 

Who are you competing against? Part 1 of 2.

Army ROTC has a “Varsity” sport called Ranger Challenge.  This competition pits regional college ROTC programs against each other testing their basic Army skills in eight to ten events.  Each region of the country has their own version of the event that takes place each fall, usually in October.  The schools train for about six to eight weeks and arrive at the 24 hour event ready to test their skills against the other twenty to forty teams.  It’s a great event for the cadets who decide to participate.  I was lucky enough to have the honor to coach one of those teams.

It takes a team to build this bridge.