¶ Introduction to Meaningful Monday
Good morning, everybody. Lee Brower here. Welcome to this week's edition of Meaningful Monday. I am grateful to be here, and I am glad to be here. Let's make this week meaningful, shall we? You know, what role does our past play in making our future even more meaningful? I'm going to leave that open-ended. I want you to think about it. But one of the tools that we use all the time, and I have to confess, we could have been using them better in our Meaningful Mondays.
So we're going to start doing it every Meaningful Monday going forward. And that is, we're going to go big.
¶ Starting in Gratitude
By go big, that means we're going to begin in gratitude. So my question that I'm throwing out to you right now, I want you to start thinking about it right now. Can you think of a moment in the last week or more that is worthy of remembering? My prediction, because I know what happened when I did it. First, I started with a clean slate, struggled a little bit, had to kind of like, then all of a sudden it cascaded.
Everything from a cashier helping me to the amazing couple that came in and spent a week with me that I learned so much or two days with me that I learned so much from to a neighbor who I didn't know that he was a co-founder of a wonderful foundation in Africa called Hands for an African Child that is supplying schools and homes for orphans. And you just start looking at everything small and big and even the bad things that we can learn from.
So think of a moment, not broad like I'm grateful for my health or I'm grateful for my family. That's easy. Think Think of a moment that is worthy of remembering. Pause. Hit the pause button on this and take the time to do it.
¶ The Creation of The Rivers
Can I share one of mine? And it's carried over a little bit, but it's a big one. It's a huge one. I think most of you know that we're creating a collaborative, co-creating with other collaborators, a collaboration called The Rivers. And that comes from contrasting a reservoir mindset with a river mindset. Many leaders have a reservoir mindset and it's great. It creates lots of jobs. It helps a lot of people, but it's centered more on motivation.
How much water can I get into my reservoir? How much shoreline can I get around my reservoir? Look at that guy's boat. I want to get a boat bigger than that. How do I get fish in my reservoir? I have to buy them. Contrast that with the river mindset. If you're a leader with a river mindset in your home or in your community or in your business, then you're more interested in flow. And as you're in flow, you attract. What do you attract? Tributaries naturally.
You attract spawning beds naturally. Wildlife come to your shores naturally. Why? You're in motion. It's a flow. But you're also giving. You're not just attracting, you're giving. So you're irrigating pastures, you're irrigating crops, you're even creating electricity.
¶ Learning from Nick’s Experience
That's the river mindset. Okay. Well, knowing that now we've just started doing this the last few years and we're, Lori's been going through, a wife Lori's been going through documenting her journal and her son Nick's blog passed away in 2011. His whole experience of four years living with cancer. Now the river wasn't in our vocabulary at the time. However, she sent me the following blog that he posted in 2009, shortly after he had relapsed.
And here's what it says. says, it's crazy how much the river can teach you about life. There are tough, rapid sections, as well as relaxing, enjoyable parts. I might mention he was just 19 years old, okay? 1920, right in there. He says, I happen to be going through a big class five right now, almost out of it though. Also, the lead counselor always gave advice on the river. Look where you are going and and you will not tip.
He continues, that can be used in many ways. So I like to think that in life, I'm looking where I'm going, and I'm not going to tip. So my message for today, number one, make sure you go big. Number two, look where you're going, and you won't tip.
¶ Empowering Question
And I'm gonna leave you with a challenging question. We call them an empowering question. This is a question that you can ask yourself every day. So every day for this coming week, ask yourself this question. What one distraction can I eliminate from my life so I can stay focused on where I am going? What one distraction can I eliminate from my life so I can stay focused where I'm going? I wrote that down in my book. I'm going to ask myself that every morning.
I'm going to put it in my subconscious and I'm going to let it go to work for me.
¶ Working Together for Meaningful Life
Look, I think by putting these elements together, I think we can all work Work together to make life even more meaningful. Live life deliberately. We'll talk next week. Have a meaningful week. You know how to have it now. Go big. Capture. Stay focused on where you're going. Find. Eliminate that one thing from your life so that you can stay focused down the river on where you're going. And you will not tip. We'll talk next week. Bye-bye.