GreatLIFE Community-
EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT! As you may be able to tell from my newsletters, I love routine, reflection and progress at work and in the majority of my life outside of work. Fortunately, my wife and I both value quality time and experiences together as a family. We floated the idea to our daughters a few months ago about not doing presents but finding an experience to do as a family instead. Surprisingly, they were both on board with the idea (so far anyway! 😊). So, a few weeks ago, we woke them both up well before the sunrise to tell them that we were going to be celebrating their birthday. As they begrudgingly shuffled to the car, I took off, winding around town, having them guess what we were going to be doing. They had NO CLUE! As the lights in the distance grew more prevalent, my oldest turned her gaze to the backseat where she noticed all of our bags and finally blurted out, “Are we going to the airport?” The cat was out of the bag. Since bringing up the idea of an experience instead of a present, the girls had been going back and forth about what they wanted to do. Thanks to well-timed commercial ads during basketball games, they both agreed that a cruise was it! Honestly, I had no desire to go on a cruise but fortunately for me, they did, because it turned out to be such a fun-filled vacation where we spent so much quality time together and disconnected from our everyday lives. There were so many lessons to be taken away from the entire experience but I will keep it to my biggest 3.
LESSONS LEARNED:
- Learn from others– With my only experiences with boats on the ocean ending in either myself or my wife being a bit queasy, I was reluctant to commit to spending 5 full days possibly feeling like it. Once we committed to the cruise, my wife and I reached out to several of our friends who have been on cruises before for tips about cruises and various solutions for squandering motion sickness….FYI the patches behind the ears worked wonders for me!
- Have Fun– I can find myself so focused on achieving the next thing that sometimes I forget about how important and impactful disconnecting from daily life to have fun with those I love the most can really be…we’re not singers so family karaoke where nobody knew us was perfect! 😊
- Continue to do what energizes you– My morning routine is something that is energy-giving to me. It may sound strange, but getting up early to do my reading and workout is something that sets me up to have the energy and mindset I want in order to “play for the day.” In this month’s book review, Tom Ziglar talks about mastering the “Perfect Start”. This thought has been tremendously effective with helping me understand why my morning routine is so important to me.
GreatLIFE UPDATE:
Last month we had the pleasure of getting a 2024/2025 update from our founder and chairman Tom Walsh Sr. He wrote about the expansion at Harrisburg, the new fitness facility at Avera, our new fleet of golf carts at Rocky Run and so much more. As we head full steam into 2025, we are staying focused on providing new and exciting ways to continually add more value to everyone in our GreatLIFE community. Through these large expansions, equipment upgrades, programs, member benefits and pouring resources into developing our Team, we believe we will continue to improve and serve our GreatLIFE community for several years to come.
With some of the recent mild days, I have been itching to get out onto the golf course but I know how important it is for us to make sure we allow the grass to start to grow before I start taking out the divots that I’m prone to do. For now, I’m hitting the simulators at Suburban Lanes! Weather dependent, our hope is to be able to open up next month (March) when the grass has time to heal and provide a great experience from the start for all GreatLIFE members.
One of our Core Values as a company is Community Leadership. With last month being National Mentoring Month, it feels fitting to give you an update on where we are with the TeamMates Mentoring program. We are currently in nearly all Elementary and Middle Schools in the Sioux Falls School District, as well as Roosevelt and Jefferson High School. The program is school-based but most schools allow the flexibility for a mentor to come in at a day and time that would work in their schedule (which has been really nice for me personally). As we inch closer to the end of the school year, this is the time that we are hoping to create more mentor-mentee matches as research has found that in even as little as 3 meetings before summer, provides a sense of hope and excitement for the next school year for the mentee. If you or someone you know would be a great fit to become a mentor, feel free to fill out an application HERE or they can reach out to me directly and I would love to answer any questions they may have.
BOOK CLUB:
As I went back, I realized I forgot to include what book we were going to read in January. I trust you were able to find a good one to read and I would love to hear about it. This month’s book was entitled 10 Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times by Tom Ziglar. Tom happens to be the son of Zig Ziglar so when I saw the book, I was immediately curious as to what he had to say. I absolutely loved, and agreed with, his top 10 leadership virtues and would encourage you to find time to go back and read through each of them.
Here are 3 of my main takeaways:
- Master the Perfect Start– We are all different in what we would consider the “Perfect Start” to our day. However, taking time to figure out what that is for you, and making it a daily habit is a recipe for a successful day, month, year and life.
- I don’t have all the answers…and that’s OK!- As a leader, I can fall into the trap of feeling like I should have all the answers and if I don’t, I’m doing something wrong. The reality is that nobody has all the answers so it’s my job to LISTEN to understand the need and find the best resource/s to help that person through whatever they are going through.
- Show Respect- Look for one thing you respect about everyone you come across. It will help you to have a grateful, growth mindset even if you don’t necessarily agree with what that person is talking about.
NEXT MONTH’S BOOK: Mind your Mindset by Michael Hyatt
POSITIVE THOUGHT:
“It’s not what happens to you but rather how you respond to the events that happen to you that shape our life.” -Zig Ziglar