Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…
The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC
May 18, 2020
Good morning! Apple blossoms are starting to emerge — and it looks like temperatures moderating soon.A gentle 3/4″ of rain percolated into thirsty soil over the weekend. My 91-year-old neighbor puts me to shame as he labors 12 hours a day — on his hands and knees — caring for his yard, planting autumn’s harvest.
As of today, nearly 27 million US citizens are dependent upon childcare if they are to return to work. (McKinsey & Co.)
Worldwide, 1.6 billion children in 191 countries have not been in school the last two to three months because of the COVIDs.
- Have you ever taken a journey of any length, distance, or significance?
- Do you remember getting started in the pre-dawn hours, the first mile, the first hour, the first rest stop, the end of the first day?
- Do you remember thinking of the journey as an abstraction, being almost impossible to imagine, but each step along the way getting you closer to your destination?
- It’s called the cumulative effect. You can’t get there if you don’t start — and then if you don’t continue.
- Take the first step — and then just keep taking the next steps… you’ll get there.
- How much toothpaste is left in the tube once you’ve declared it’s empty?
- I’ve actually conducted in-person, proprietary research on this subject.
- I was delighted to receive several responses to my query about encountering a Cardinal; thank you.
- My friend and reader, Cathy, submitted a sixth (6th) option about which I was uninformed: “A Cardinal is a representative of a loved one who has died. When you see one, it means they are visiting you. They usually show up when you most need them or miss them. They also make an appearance during times of celebration as well as despair to let you know they will always be with you.”
- “If you have the personal commitment, but aren’t willing to invest the time, money, and resources, it’s not going to happen. And if you don’t have the personal commitment, even if you invest the time, money, and resources, it won’t happen.” (Brock)
- How often do you re-read the United States Constitution? I find that each time I do I learn something new or gain a deeper understanding.
- The preamble is one of the better combined mission/ vision statements ever written… usually impossible to accomplish a two-for-one, but Morris and pals perhaps penned a sentence with unparalleled impact. What do you think?
- “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (sic), promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
- My favourite word is ordain because in using that word they basically declared the document sacred.
- The preamble is one of the better combined mission/ vision statements ever written… usually impossible to accomplish a two-for-one, but Morris and pals perhaps penned a sentence with unparalleled impact. What do you think?
- In his 1992 book, The World is my Home, the well-aged James Michener opens by saying, “I have been impelled to attempt this project because of an experience that occurred eighty years ago… The farmer living at the end of our lane had an aging apple tree that had once been abundantly productive but had now lost its energy and ability to bear any fruit at all. The farmer, on an early spring day I still remember, hammered eight nails, long and rusty, into the trunk of the tree. Four were knocked in close to the ground on four different sides of the trunk, four higher up and well-spaced about the circumference.
- That autumn a miracle happened. The tired old tree, having been goaded back to life, produced a bumper crop of juicy red apples, bigger and better than we had seen before. When I asked how this had happened, the farmer explained, ‘Hammerin’ in the rusty nails gave it a shock to remind it that its job is to produce apples.’
- ‘Was it important that the nails were rusty?’
- ‘Maybe it made the mineral in the nail easier to digest.’
- ‘Was eight important?’
- ‘If you’re goin’ to send a message, be sure it’s heard.’
- ‘Could you do the same next year?’
- ‘A substantial jolt lasts about ten years.’
- ‘Will you knock in more nails then?’
- ‘By that time we both may be finished,’…
- In the 1980s, when I was nearly 80 years old, I had some fairly large rusty nails hammered into my trunk – a quintuple bypass heart surgery, a new left hip, a dental rebuilding, an attack of permanent vertigo – and, like a sensible apple tree, I resolved to resume bearing fruit…
- Between the years 1986 and 1991 I would write eleven books… It was an almost indecent display of frenzied industry, but it was carried out slowly, carefully, each morning at the typewriter…
- One nagging question remains. Did the old tree get back to work producing apples only because the shock of the rusty nails reminded it of death? By analogy, did I labor so diligently because of my age and the approach of a time when I could work no more?
- I think not. The job of an apple tree is to bear apples. The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.”
- What do you get when you work with Without a Vision Consultancy LLC?
- We listen, we learn, and then we customize our response to deliver:
- Confidence
- Clarity
- Coaching
- Companionship on your journey… sometimes it gets lonely and it’s good to have a friend.
When you tell others about us — and I hope you will — please emphasize the ways in which we are unique.I work with individuals, governance structures (Boards), non-profits, and businesses wanting to be bigger, better, stronger, healthier, happier… yes, all five are possible and best done in concert, but it typically requires a coach (consultant) or a companion to help illuminate the path.At Without a Vision Consultancy LLC — www.withoutavision.org — we LISTEN, we LEARN, we LISTEN some more, and only then do we suggest strategic directions unique to your situation. We do not bring a one-size-fits-all template, nor the latest flash-in-the-pan solutions, to working with you.As we work with you we deliver and provide an increase in your CONFIDENCE, and CLARITY while providing coaching and companionship for your journey.We bring more than fifty years of experience from all sides of the Board table in thirteen different leadership roles — 26 of those years as a CEO.
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