Guideposts In The Fog
This past week, a Sunday Morning Joe reader prompted me to read a post about a friend of mine. The article was shared on the high-profile outdoors website, Patagonia. It focused on the work and pursuits of Dr. Jessie Stone, a world class kayaker who has gone to extraordinary measures to make a positive difference in the world.
When I met Jessie a little more than eight years ago, we recorded a short conversation about her work and vision for serving something greater than herself.
As I watch the video today, not only can I see I wasn’t fully there, but, I remember exactly where I was in that moment.
It was the autumn of 2009, and I was on the cusp of starting a new job, one of the biggest professional opportunities of my life to that date.
During the conversation, I heard Jessie’s voice, but a part of my brain was:
Planning,
Strategizing,
Positioning,
Branding.
My ambition made me deaf to an aspiration she placed right in front of me.
Here was a fellow paddler who defies the norms and plays by her own rules, an influence who would have served me well in my new employment in the Olympic Sports world where it’s ALL about adapting to other people’s rules.
All of which is a shame because her tone, spirit, and message resonate so deeply with my outlook on the world.
If only I had been more there to listen…
Yet, through all of the fog and uncertainty of that eight-year stretch, a few of Jessie’s guiding words patiently waited for the right moment to set roots.
I reached out to her this past week. I wanted to compliment Jessie on the impressive impact of her work at Soft Power Health, acknowledge our previous conversation from a new perspective, and use her efforts to light a spark for another friend.
More importantly though, I wrote Jessie to thank her for being a guidepost in a self-created foggy period of my life.
The relationship between ambition and guideposts are not always obvious. Maybe that’s why ambition is routinely labeled as blind. In my case ambition also was deaf.
Perhaps a dimension worth considering when setting goals.
Your most important guideposts could be within easy earshot. Are you listening?
With gratitude,
Joe
PS — to learn more about Soft Power Health, please click HERE
Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
The best way to interact with me is though Sunday Morning Joe, my weekly newsletter that explores the art of improving performance, overcoming challenge, and aligning with purpose for Sunday readers in search of more depth and motivation. Subscribe HERE for free.
