Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…
The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC
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August 19, 2019 – Further into the Dog Days of Summer
Good morning!
A waning gibbous moon was almost at full zenith earlier on this spectacular 49° F morning.
Minnesota’s more than 300 high schools — and the current generation of youth from each — this morning are welcoming high humidity, heavy dew, millions of gnats and freshly-cut blades of grass as the curtain rises on a sacred summer tradition not unlike the nostalgia connected with capturing lightning bugs or grasshoppers on a hot summer’s eve, ensnaring them in fruit jars furnished with a few sticks and leaves as food and featuring holes poked in the lids for air.
Our son was engaged to be married over the weekend… six months shy of age 30.
Our next door neighbor died, a war hero from the Greatest Generation, a P.O.W. during the war, and 45 years a fire fighter once back home.
- Do you enjoy any of these foods?
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- Apples? Strawberries? Cucumbers? Raspberries? Avocados? Grapes? Tomatoes? Peas? Beans? Blueberries? Pears? Squash? Peach? Gooseberry? Cherry?
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- Apparently one-third of the foods we eat are dependent upon honeybees or other insects for pollination.
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- If the bees are gone, we’re gone — or at least our strawberry shortcake is… It was National Honeybee Day last Friday… have an English Muffin!
- It has now been fifty years and a few days since nearly 500,000 young people made history of a different kind at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, NY.
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- Interesting that a half million were there in 1969 — halfway between Scranton, PA and West Point, NY — and now fifty years later nearly ten million report having been there.
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- The New York Times last week had a coffee table-worthy special section you should seek out and save if you don’t already have it.
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- If you want an out-of-the-way cultural and historical adventure in the country, the iconic site is modernized and preserved as Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.
- What are you reading?
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- Though some of his decisions are a bit troubling to this writer, Mr. Justice Holmes is widely regarded as having been among this nation’s wisest, prolific, most-reasoned jurists.
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- Now, a new book, A Life in War, Law, and Ideas (Budiansky, 2019) gives additional insight into this Bostonian war hero who became a giant of the court.
- Do you fastidiously finish one book before starting another or do you typically have two or more books in various stages of completion? Five or more? What’s your number?
- I don’t remember hearing and reading so much about sleep, it would seem to be a rather simple, enjoyable, essential, and natural phenomenon.
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- Apparently there are now books, podcasts, tutorials, blogs, sleep coaches, counselors, schedulers, support groups…
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- How about quiet time or alone time separate from sleep? Critically important, too.
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- Meaning no offense or disrespect to those afflicted with sleep deprivation for any number of legitimate reasons, especially anxiety, to where have we evolved?
- Who destroys another person’s garden?
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- Who comes along and kills plants that are food or aesthetic beauty for another; who does this?!
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- Perhaps it is the same cowardly terrorist as the weekly garbage phantom?!
- Perspective is everything.
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- When visiting a client last week in St. Paul I chose to ride the train downtown rather than traveling the last few miles by car.
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- Liberating, relaxing, less-costly, fewer potholes, a different perspective on the neighborhood — you can even text while you ride should you choose.
- Is the era of management dead? Or is it just the same old thing with new vocabulary?
- “The top priority of management (top leadership/ CEO) is to ensure that there’s a shared vision for the future of the organization and that this vision is a part of the culture.” (Bradford, Duncan, Tarcy)
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- Here’s a counter-argument told to me by a friend years ago: “The job of the CEO is to make sure we’re open for business tomorrow!” (Rogan)
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- When you think about it those views aren’t really polar opposites so long as you string together thousands of tomorrows.
“We can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Albert Einstein)
“To have a great idea have a lot of them.” (Tom Edison)
When will you give yourself the greatest gift of all, the gift of time?
Schedule a no-obligation, no-cost initial exploratory visit with Without a Vision Consultancy today.
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