Leaving a trail for our Son – Page 1092 – Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker

Identify Your Highest Skill

“Identify your highest skill and devote your time to performing it. Delegate all other skills”. — Ronald Brown

Mid life adults get to mid life for a variety of reasons, including luck, passion, focus, discipline, etc. What we do once we get to mid life is a different game though.

How?

Why?

Many reasons to be sure. Well, at least if we pay attention. Many people at mid life have the proverbial Mid Life Crisis, lasting from a few hours, a few months, and even a few years.

One of the mid life tips to consider is to do what Ronald Brown suggests. Only one challenge with that though?

Most have no idea what their highest skill is. None. Crisis? What crisis?

Busiest Day of the Year?

“Tomorrow is always the busiest day of the year”. — Jonathon Lazear

Ain’t it the truth? At least that’s the way it feels. Why?

You may feel differently. But for me, it seems like tomorrow is “the day” that, “I’ll finally be able to catch up with things“. So I race hard to get so much done.

Time marches on and there is simply more to take the place of that which has been done. Ever heard the phrase, “busy beaver“? Beavers work hard every day, repairing their dam, fixing their den, looking for food, etc. Seems there is always lots of work to do.

What’s the solution? If I knew that, tomorrow would be looking like a vacation day, eh?

Health Is Wealth

“Wealth can’t buy health, but health can buy wealth”. — Henry David Thoreau

Interesting. Why? Because Thoreau died in 1862, at 44. Little did he know that all these years later, money can buy health, to a certain extent. But that’s not the reason this Thoreau quote is important.

It’s important because, in my opinion, health can buy wealth. My wife’s Grammy, who lived to be 93, would always say, “Health is wealth”.

Grammy died in my arms in 1989. We had traveled to Allentown, Pennsylvania to visit Family and I was attending our best man’s wedding.

Grammy, in her wisdom, knew firsthand that as we age, we are at the mercy of our bodies. Our body – the greatest machine ever devised. Don’t forget to rotate your tires and change the oil at regular intervals.

Ignorance In Action

“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action”. — Goethe

What does this mean exactly? Perhaps it is as simple as this:

“The unexamined life is not worth living”. — Socrates

We get one passage here on Earth. Let’s make it a good one.

Mid Life Workaholics

“Workaholics commit slow suicide by refusing to allow the child inside them to play”. — Dr. Lawrence Susser

Recognizing the intense desire to do a good job, many people still have a challenging time overcoming mid life work addiction.

My Grandfather worked full-time, plus he ran a TV repair business out of his basement. This was back in the day when Televisions were heavy and huge. He had to travel to people’s homes. This traveling and the work required to repair TV’s in the basement, plus the travel to return the TV, must have made his work commitment enormous.

My Dad worked 5 1/2 days every single week at the Paper Mill. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, he taught 30-minute drum lessons in our living room – from 4pm until 8pm. On Friday and Saturday nights, he played drums in a band – weddings, anniversaries, clubs, etc.

Now it’s my turn. Working at a Fortune 100 Company, there is no shortage of work to be done. And I’ve done it willingly for several decades. Now, I’m also working on my retirement business – to help raise enough money to find a cure for our son’s Crohn’s disease.

The difference, I perceive, is that I have found creative ways to be part of our son’s life. But only after I squandered the first four decades of my life.