Your Ideal Day, Are you a One or Ten, The Best Place to Live in the U.S.A.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— C.G. Jung

Good morning world, the sunrise is spectacular; I trust you slept well; cheers to another fantastic day.  I have a meeting this morning, then a lunch with a new friend, a full day of talking to strangers. I drove to my board meeting yesterday, the first time since the pandemic I made the drive.  It was a little over an hour; I arrived, got a danish and coffee, and worked with my board for four hours.

It was a good meeting, a small but mighty gathering.  I took care of the warm-up; I asked what one’s perfect day might resemble. I will ask you the same question, what is your perfect day?  I shared I like to get up around 5:00, write my soup, work email, have a little breakfast, shower, then begin running meetings around ten.  I use that five hours for project work, a dog walk, and maybe some laundry or other household chores.  After my ten, I am returning to having lunch with a stranger, client, or friend.

I do a little work in the afternoon, meet someone for cocktails at 4:30, home by 6:30, cooking with my Queen, winding down with something on the tube, and hitting the bed about 9:00.  My board pointed out that was my current life, and I said, “I live my ideal day most days.” So my question for you is, what can you change to make most days ideal?

As we got into our updates, the board was a little taken aback that I was not a ten.  You see, we rate our personal and professional lives on a one to ten scale; most months, I’m a ten on both.  I love my life and am not afraid to share my joy and happiness. This month I was an eight and eight.  I explained that I was recently on another call, I opened with my joy and happiness, and most others were struggling, and I thought, you need to be more self-aware that not everyone is living their best life.  Maybe notching down my exuberance for life would better align me with others.

One board member chimed in and said he loved my enthusiasm and compared me to the client that was a one every time he met with them.  Give me a ten every day, he said.  The other point made was, “Is he really a ten, or is he hiding something.”  I’m as transparent as they come; when I say I’m a ten, I promise, I’m a ten. 

So why the eight? I had some justifications; one issue in my personal world has me a little concerned.  Nothing with my wife, but it’s a family issue that needs some work, and then with regards to the business, I seemed to be seeing our summer numbers losing steam.  I was looking for advice on supercharging my team and returning to our “through May” momentum. I took notes, crafted a plan to remind folks of our activity plans, and create a little more competition between our sales team by creating two teams.  

I arrived home last night; we did some work around the house; we got a cocktail about 5:00 and sat on our deck looking out the 180 miles watching the wildlife and our pup exploring our property.  I got a text from our team that indicated one of our salespeople had caught fire, and we were back on track to hit our goal for this month. So I did some quick math; as of the 15th of the month, we are already hitting our monthly plan, now it’s time to make gravy.

I’m now a sales manager; that is my job; I make sure to set reasonable goals and hold my team accountable.  I changed my role about five years ago.  I was a producer, I built an excellent book of business, but I began to learn to build a company, it had to be more about my personal conquests, and if I shared my knowledge with others, we could grow much faster.  So far, the plan is working; part of my happiness is I am in my perfect role.

I just saw an article shared by a friend that shared the U.S. News and World Report released its best places to live rankings last week, and four out of the five top cities are in Colorado. One was Boulder, two was Denver, four Colorado Springs, and five was Fort Collins.  Having lived in a few places in my life, I would concur that this area provides a perfect balance of nature, peace, joy, and community.  Having visited or lived in all the places above, I would add Conifer, CO, to the list, a 45-minute drive from Denver, in the foothills, a pristine paradise of aspen trees, wildlife, and sunshine.

My pup is sleeping to my left.  My coffee is to my right, the sun is now beaming through the back glass doors, and the windchime is playing a beautiful song. So this is my life; I’ll give my morning a ten; my lovely wife is slumbering above and will soon come down to provide me with some morning sugar.  I’ve got another meeting at 7:30, this one virtual, I have another 7:30 a.m. tomorrow, again virtual, but I suspect that these meetings from now on will be in person, the world is returning to normal I hope you enjoyed your year “off.”  It’s time to get back to business.

I chatted with my friend Jack yesterday; he’s in Texas, he’s coming to a Rock Rocks show.  He shared a quote I had used in a recent soup that significantly impacted him; I shared my process of locating each day’s passage. I use one word that encapsulates my message and then dig through a quote search engine that provides multiple options to open and close my work.  Today’s word is self-awareness.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— C.G. Jung