A Moment To Focus on What Really Matters

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Gorgeous and I are heading out of town for a while, taking a much needed break. This year we decided to mix it up a little so instead of spending a day braving our nation’s air travel industry we are driving. From Savannah to Wisconsin. Here’s to hoping for good weather!

We decided to drive this year because we are both such busy people and sometimes it seems like we are going in two completely different directions and only meet for brief snippets at the coffee pot in the mornings. Spending 22 hours or so in a car together will give us some much needed quality time together.

But the whole thing has got me to thinking lately about what is really most important as we all work hard to grow our businesses. When it comes to money they say you can’t take it with you and from what I can tell they are right about that one.

I wrote recently over at Successful-Blog how death is one of the great equalizers in this world. And it is true.

In the entire history of the world, with billions of test cases already complete, the ratio of people who die compared to those who are born is exactly 1. We are all going to die one day. And none of us know exactly when, either. It might be today, or it might be decades from now.

I don’t say this to be morbid during the holiday season. I say this as a reminder to encourage you to focus on things that really matter.

You may or may not believe in some sort of an afterlife. Me I happen to.

If you do you should know that there is only one thing from this world that you will have any chance of taking with you when you step into the next. And it won’t be your stuff, your business, your portfolio, or the monuments you build for yourself either.

The only thing that will truly last and carry over into eternity is the relationships we build with others here in this world. Because other people are all that is going to leave this world for that one too.

You’ve heard me say it before. People are the reason we are in business. Without satisfied repeat customers our income will eventually stop flowing. But it is even bigger than that.

If we spend our entire lives working for things and neglect the people along the way we will get to the end and realize we have nothing.

Why do you think A Christmas Carol has been such an enduring story for the last 163 years? It has been re-done in an incredible number of versions. Even when that story is horribly told it still stands up because of the truth behind it.

Think of the other Christmas classics - It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, A Charlie Brown Christmas - The common thread to all these timeless stories is that people matter, not things.

So I encourage you to set a little time aside in what is left of this holiday season and think about ways you can be more intentional about your relationships with other people. Turn off the blackberry if you have to. Shut down the computer for a bit. Focus for a moment on things of lasting importance. Make 2007 an even more successful year than 2006.

Me, I’ll be in places with spotty internet availability for much of the next two weeks. So I apologize up front if my posting frequency or response to comments is a little off. But if I can survive the physical effects of technology withdrawal - you know, the twitching, drooling, shortness of breath, rapid pulse, and irrational angry outbursts for no apparent reason; if I make it through all that - then I’ll be back into the swing of things in a couple weeks.

Enjoy!

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Tags: Misc, Principles, Relationships, People, Stories