The Second Act

One of the most consistent - inconsistencies in life,  is change.  I first heard the term “a new normal” when we first had kids and the huge change to your daily life that comes with feeding and changing diapers and lack of sleep and new anxiety, of course also cuteness, cuddles and coos that are a cool new addition to the routine. But if you’re thinking, “it will be like this forever”…get ready.  Just when you think you have found your stride...just when something seems to be long-term and a routine is in place…it changes. I think it's almost better now to think in terms of seasons. A season of consistency here...A season of stability there...and then...wait for it...New happens...  New schools, new phases, new teammates, new bosses, new locations, new friends, new communities, new priorities.  I have been someone who values the un-changed.  As Garth Algar said "we fear change"... But fear of change is irrational, like fear of sunlight. It is going to happ...

I have always been interested in the battlefield stories from Gettysburg… So many decisions that were made for good and bad that had profound outcomes on the future of the country.  The account of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on Little Round Top is the one that has fascinated me. The left flank. He was ordered to Hold under all circumstances…to the last…  Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, on a boulder-strewn hillside in southern Pennsylvania, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain dashed headlong into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War. The regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat. (Read more here  https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/defens...

Recently I was watching the pro football documentary series "Hard Knocks" and in the final episode of the season with The New York Giants, the show covered how the General Manager does professional evaluations with his staff each season.  (See video below) It was fascinating because you can see how an organization who's main mission in the big scheme of life is to win football games, operates with such intentionality when comes to taking care of the staff...  Checking in, encouraging specific skills and talents, helping individuals improve in their work and lives... Development ...  I think it’s this simple intentionality that employees and staff long for in their organizations… The times I have thrived on staff teams that I was a part, it was because my supervisor was intentional about this and did the work leading the conversation with intentional questions and accountability and specific encouragement… As I have conversations with young adults getting their first jobs,...