Fridge Philosophy: Taking Initiative
Side of Mustard: Conference realignment, Love for Lahaina
Note: Since 2018, I have placed these short quotes on our refrigerator at home to provide subtle hints for successful, thoughtful, and purposeful practices in hopes my teens would internalize them. Along the way, I found them helpful in my own life.
Sylvia Alice Earle (born August 30, 1935) is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer.
How often do we think about stretching ourselves and take on a task or a goal or a dream, but ultimately decide against leaving our comfort zone?
Life is hard. The job is hard. The idea of moving toward something worth the effort exhausting. Even at our jobs, we may see something that can be improved and instead of making someone aware of that improvement, we wait to be asked.
We’ve been burned before. We make a suggestion and it’s dismissed. Or we see a change, but it goes in a different direction than we expected, and we’re blamed. Or worst of all, everything goes great and someone else gets the credit. Why do something extra if we’re not receiving the benefit?
We put off the ambition and wait for an external kickstart, if we pursue it at all. There’s a level of comfort in that idea. There is risk in moving forward - failure, being burned, realization of your own limitations.
On the other side is reward. These can be dreams. But when you acknowledge your dreams, they become goals. When you take steps toward those goals, they become action and soon, the initiative creates a momentum that drives to success.
It’s like that Christmas Special “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The Winter Warlock is stuck in his ways. He’s always been angry and because of his cold heart, he’s terrorized those coming over the mountains. But Kris Kringle convinces him it doesn’t take much to move toward change. “You put one foot in front of the other. And soon you are walking out the door.”
Initiative can be as simple as swinging legs over the bed and placing feet on the floor. When I began working out before work, I thought I was nuts. Get up at 5:15 a.m. to go to the gym when the bed is warm and cozy. Yet, I found that if my only decision was to swing my legs over and stand up, I was committing to the gym. Whereas when I went to the gym in the afternoon/evening, I had several choices and affirmations to make throughout the day to ensure I went to the gym.
One moment of initiative can drive momentum toward action. Action drives results. Results drive further initiative and results. Soon, those results create ownership and self-accountability to achieve.
Anyone who has written a book remembers the moment when they wrote the first word of the manuscript. That’s the moment Sylvie Alice Earle talks about here: Look for something you want for yourself and then act on it. Achievement will take more than the one moment of action, but thousands of moments built on the one moment when we decided to act. Someone may feel a draw to opening a business, entering/exiting a relationship, traveling, or fulfilling a dream. The next step is acting on it… Put one foot in front of the other!
Extra Mustard
Conference reimagining - Last week, the college athletic landscape changed forever (it’s been doing that a lot lately) with the announcements that HALF of the Pac-12 Athletic Conference was leaving for greener fields. And by greener, I mean lined with more money. With the departure of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State moving to the Big 12 and Washington and Oregon heading to the BIG Ten to join UCLA and USC, the once vaunted Pacific Atheltic Conference is a shell and may be gone soon. Some thoughts:
College Sports should never talk about the “college athlete” ever again. These moves were not about enhancing the college athletic experience. These moves were made exclusively to maximize the cash cow of college football television contracts. Granted, college football pays for all other sports with more to spare for academic programs, but I’m sure the UCLA woman’s college soccer player will be wondering why she is writing a term paper on a five-hour redeye returning from an away game at Rutgers in New Jersey. That should be fun.
By 2024, the BIG Ten conference will include 18 schools. The Big 12 will have 16 and the SEC will have 16 when Texas and Oklahoma join this season. How can an Indiana or a Vanderbilt or an Illinois capture lightning in a bottle when there’s a Alabama, LSU, Michigan or Ohio State always on top of the mountain. It’s almost like the conference will be a pre-determined preseason for the playoffs.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is in talks to bring in Cal and Stanford. Yes, you heard that right. ATLANTIC and two SF Bay Area schools. When and how does it all end?
The interesting aspect of all this is that perhaps the College Football Playoff would make sense. Imagine if each of these Super Duper Conferences held a two-game playoff of their own to decide their entry to the four-team playoff? Wouldn’t that be exciting… Oh wait, the College Football Playoff expands in 2024. Nevermind, I’ll just be over here with a beer and watching.
Love to Lahaina
With this week’s devastating wildfires on Maui, I can’t help but think of the time I’ve walked Front Street, stayed at the historic Pioneer Inn, had a Cheeseburger with an ocean front view at Cheeseburgers in Paradise (pic above), partaken in Kohola brew and more. Now it’s all gone and it’s hard to fathom the devastation in a beautiful corner of the world. For my other work, I have to work around wildfire devastation. Each time I see smoldering ash where I once saw structures, I am reminded how fragile our perceived stability really is. Take in the memories, protect your assets so you can recover, but remember what’s most important. My hope is the people of Lahaina can recover and rebuild. So focused on tourism, the economic impact will be felt for a long time, but I know the people and this community is resilient. #Lahainastrong