(Image by claudia martinez from Pixabay)
Solitude
Solitude rhymes with gratitude
And really is not the end of the world
Most people assume
The hustle and bustle of life
Makes the gratitude for solitude profound
In the life of those who can allow
Solitude to influence their attitude
And enjoy the energy and flow
Solitude in life can help you grow
(Image by rose-de-velours from Pixabay)
What did I see?
When I looked over the horizon
And tried to see my future
The future said everything will go well
You just need to find you way
Understand the pursuit of happiness
And begin your journey today
Don’t waste your time
Running around without a sense of direction
Chose your path
Live your life
And walk into the future
Strength is not in the numbers
But in how you control the flow
The life patterns you choose
And the pace that you grow
Allow the strength to manifest daily
And mitigate the weakness
To eliminate potential turmoil
To get you where you belong
Stop chasing outward things
And take advantage of the strength within
(Image by lolame from Pixabay.com)
The fallacy of today is tomorrow will be a better day
Regardless of what the hope will be
There are things we will not see
The motivation of circumstance
Will keep all searching for their chance
Improving daily
But what chances should be taken?
(Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay)
“There is no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated”.
(Richard Branson)
Psychology Today identifies intellectual curiosity as a deep and persistent desire to know.
Betterup.com dives deeper by defining intellectual curiosity as curiosity that leads to an acquisition of general knowledge.
At this point I am sure you are wondering where I am headed with intellectual curiosity. Glad you asked! 😊
This has become a major characteristic I look for when working with others. I was never able to find the exact term until recently but intellectual curiosity in the workplace provides a foundation for success.
Interestingly, this is not something everyone is able to display easily. I see people who practice this trait when something is near and dear to them on a personal or professional level. The key for me is for everyone to translate intellectual curiosity daily in the workplace.
Why you ask? Great question!
People who display intellectual curiosity can find new ways to get things done. There are multiple work environments where the mindset is we have always done it that way. This may be true but organizations and people who cannot evolve are doomed to fail. It may take time for the demise, but it will happen.
Intellectually curious people understand how things are done and continue to look for ways to improve the process daily. I love being surrounded by these type people because they understand the concept of moving forward. Processes and techniques change daily, and organizations need to be able to pivot. Pivots and adjustments are needed quicker as we introduce more technology into the workplace.
COVID-19 allowed intellectually curious people and organizations to make the necessary adjustments to ensure services were provided. Most of my work colleagues had never heard of Zoom prior to the pandemic. Turns out the Zoom platform in the hands of intellectually curious organizations increased the ability to provide services and made meetings more efficient. Staff did not lose time driving or walking to meetings anymore—they simply logged into their computers and joined the meetings via their laptops.
I never imagined university career fairs could be done completely online. Intellectual curiosity has allowed people in my career field to find more efficient ways to connect students and employers. There are some organizations that have been slow to adapt to the changing world and they are rapidly being left behind.
I challenge staff to become intellectually curious daily. This is the only way to ensure an organization has a growth mindset. The way we did business two years ago is not coming back so organizations need the ability to adapt, grow and move forward.
I propose organizations staffed with people with intellectual curiosity will thrive—those without will slowly fade away.
How do you display intellectual curiosity? I welcome your thoughts!
“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding an answer”.
(Denis Waitley)
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)
“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth”.
(Jean Cocteau)
The Humble Approach
Humility brings life reassessment
Which path to choose?
Can it really work as planned?
A humble nature provides the path
Seek the truth by living the truth
The rewards you seek will come
Strive to find the path that fits
And happiness will be your reward
“Self-awareness is the golden key to making life changing decisions and sticking to them”.
(Dr. Prem Jagyasi)
Dictionary.com defines self-awareness as conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
Sounds simple enough but I like to explore self-awareness more when I conduct teambuilding exercises. Self-awareness is needed within the work environment and impacts how well the team functions. We all bring different things into the work environment daily and need to understand how and what these things are. I routinely ask the following question when I start the teambuilding process:
Who are you?
Take 2 minutes and ask yourself the question Who are you? multiple times. Record each of your responses. My examples to this exercise are:
Now it is your turn—answer the question and record your responses—I will wait! 😊
How many responses did you list to the question?
The answers may surprise people you work with and maybe yourself. There is not a right or wrong way to supply responses to the question. The major point is everything you listed enters the work environment with you daily.
This is an important point as we build teams and help staff members get to know others on the team. I have used this teambuilding exercise multiple times to enhance the work environment and help with team growth.
The point of this process is to allow team members to fully understand what they bring to work. It also shows a new level of self-awareness and how we interact with others. This exercise enhances team awareness and shows everyone they have more in common than they thought.
True leaders can use this data to ensure they treat staff members as individuals and not let their self-awareness impact how they treat others.
Example: I do not have kids–this should not impact how I deal with a parent who needs to leave work early because of a sick child. Some people in leadership positions make decisions based on their worldview only. This is a horrible way to lead a team.
Authentic leaders understand how they are viewed and the impact this has on the team. Self-aware leaders create more self-aware leaders.
So, I ask again—who are you? How does this level of self-awareness impact your daily interactions?
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself”.
(Abraham Maslow)
“A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles”
(Pinterest)
Dictionary.com defines grateful as feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.
Pretty simple concept and one to dig into a bit more. I do a lot of reading and came across a blog article titled the Top 5 Things I am Grateful For. The article and title are straight forward so I decided to try my writing chops to explore this from my perspective.
Family
Spend any amount of time with me and I will tell you about my family. My family on my mom’s side consists of 5 uncles and 4 aunts. The last time we counted I had 32 first cousins and 69 second cousins. I know that last number has gone up, but we have not counted them in a long time.
This large extended family unit allowed me to grow up in an environment where most of my early friends were family members. We did not add nonfamily friends until we started school because there were enough of us around to field our own teams in most sports.
I am grateful for having so many family members who go out of their way to look out for each other. Seems like a simple thing but we spent most Thanksgivings with this large unit and enjoyed our time together. COVID-19 put a halt on our large family get togethers last year but hopefully we can find a way to get the crew together this year—safely!
Friends
My Walk into the Future journey has allowed me to make some truly great friends. Please note, I do not let a lot of people into my inner circle, so my friends are special people to me. I have friends who are not cousins and I have known them my entire life. We stay connected and get back together whenever possible and continue to grow our friendship.
I have friends I met while in the Air Force and we have become our own family unit. I look forward to getting together and catching up whenever possible. COVID-19 has put a halt to our running tourist trips, but I am sure we will get back on track in the future. New Orleans is calling!
I met my best friend in the gym one morning as she bullied me to help her with the weights she was lifting—true story! 😊 Seriously, a simple gym conversation launched a great friendship, and we chat and catch up on life as much as possible. See you on Park Avenue!
My tree branches are all friends I look forward to catching up with. Could be a simple email, text, or phone call but love hearing how well my folks are doing in this world. I enjoy seeing them exploring life via Instagram stories and pictures they share. I live through them daily and enjoy seeing the growth of my tree. WE ARE! Go Bucks! Go Noles! Go Gators!
Running
I found running later in life but cannot imagine a world without me putting in my miles. The concept of running a half marathon was foreign to me in 2013 but now I run 6 to 8 half marathons yearly (pre-COVID). I had no intention to run another half marathon after my first attempt because it took me three full weeks to recover. Of course, I had no idea how to train, hydrate or recover properly—lessons learned the hard way! LOL.
My stated goal for 2022 is to explore my first full marathon. I am hoping COVID does not come back like 2020 and eliminates all future running events. I am always looking for motivation when I run so training for a full marathon should keep me putting in the miles for years to come. Trying to convince several friends to come race with me. Let’s go Laurens! 😊
“Running helps me maintain my ‘never killed anyone’ streak”.
(Pinterest)
Health
Happy to report I can eat and drink whatever I want. My running and weight training programs help with this, but I am blessed with good health. Running has not caused undue aches or pains and helps me maintain a healthy weight without counting calories. My weight training provides strong muscle structure to keep me moving forward. My annual physicals produce good numbers, and the doctor does not have to get onto me to eliminate anything from my diet. Grateful to continue to age well! 😊
My Blog
Started the Walk into the Future blog without a clear understanding how it would impact me. I thought I would just write a few things down and see if anyone wanted to read my words. Turns out the blog has become an extension of me and gives me a platform to share thoughts, ideas, and adventures. My writing process has slowed down as my work obligations expand but I am still able to keep 4 to 5 weeks of blog articles in my production library. I would like to get back up to 8 to 10 weeks of articles in reserve in case I need to revise or update them before publishing. Not sure how long I will continue to publish the blog but still have a ton of material to explore so hope you stay with me on this journey! 😊
Bonus: My readers
Grateful for everyone who takes the time to read my blog. Your positive affirmations always put a smile on my face and inspire me to work to produce better content weekly. Thank you for following the Walk into the Future blog! Well done!
What are YOU grateful for? I welcome your thoughts!
“The struggles ends when the gratitude begins”.
(Neale Donald Walsh)
Nothing ventured
Nothing gained
The glory we need
Must be maintained
Seeking the knowledge
Becomes a daily challenge
To continue to learn and grow
To make today better than yesterday
Seeking the future glory
The goal remains the same
Make the world a better place
And remember to say the names
(George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery)
(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
“Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn”.
(Scott Adams)
I never imagined three years ago I would still be blogging about my life, thoughts, and adventures.
The need for me to document things via the Walk into the Future blog continues to grow as my views and voice get stronger daily. COVID-19 slowed down the adventures, but I still write to share my ideas with my followers and the occasional new reader around the world. I also write as a form of therapy for me to release energy into the world—sounds poetic, huh?
It still amazes me when I see a reader from France, India or Spain checking out one of my articles. Never thought my idea for this blog would travel so well but travel it does.
I make a point to write about things that speak directly to me and adventures I have decided to tackle. Some of my best content comes from friends and family who send me topics they would like to read about. This process is exciting to me because I get to conduct research to bring the topic to my followers. It is a bit more complicated than just hearing a topic and then I sit down and write. There are times when the words just flow for me but other times, I must come back to a potential topics multiple times just to get it production ready. I do not think I have ever experienced writer’s block but there are days where writing just does not flow for me. I find I just need to clear my mind and let my fingers do the walking—that is an old telephone book reference! 😊
I have had a few articles I wrote but never published on the Walk into the Future blog. Never thought I would have canned articles but not share them on the blog. This does not happen too often but the articles I hold back do not fit what I want the blog to represent. Yes, this is my blog, but it is also open access and I owe it to myself and my readers to put my best work forward daily.
2020 saw so much turmoil in America and the way black people are treated caused a lot of frustration for me. My ability to channel these frustrations provided some of my best work (my opinion) but needed to ensure my words match the intended purpose. I revisit the articles I put on ice to see if I can salvage them, but they remain on ice—I am sure I will share directly with my tree branches but some of these will never be blog worthy (Seinfeld reference).
I find joy in putting words down to see if I can develop into something others would want to read. The challenge to keep generating articles is with me daily. I find inspiration to write in multiple settings but me sitting down on my laptop and just hammering out content is the norm for me now. COVID-19 took away my coffee shop vibes, so I sit at my dining room table with my laptop, beer, and Bob Marley music as I lay down these tracks.
Plan to keep writing as long as it is fun to me and people continue to read what I am laying down.
My hope is to get back to a certain level of travel again so I can write about my exploits in exotic locales. Negril, Jamaica is my first stop once it is safe to head back down.
So, I have listed some reasons why I continue to blog. Why do YOU continue to read? I welcome your thoughts!
Irie!
“The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust”.
(Jason Calacanis)
Walk Into the Future 