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I was listening to a podcast several weeks ago and had to pull the car over and write down a quote because it slapped me in the face.

“Get out of your own worry and your own head. The people who you care about serving, they don’t care about what lists you’re on. The just want what it is that you have to give.”
-Pamela Slim, Author of Body of Work
great sand dunes

I worry a lot. Not about being on any sort of list or anything but just about stuff. Stuff that really doesn’t deserve worry. But what I heard when Pamela said this was that worry doesn’t deserve my time. You know who deserves my time? My wife. My friends. My work. You! There’s not a single reason why I can’t deliver on these fronts because what I have to give is me and no amount of worry is ever going to change me for the better. No one else lives inside my worry and my head so how can I expect to serve them there?

What you have to give, what you have to make, is not going to serve who you made it to serve if you’re in your own head. Stop it. You’re awesome. Live like it.

Happy Friday, Yo!

**In extra fun news: Today, Jen Creed and I celebrate 6 years of marriage! So rad! I’m incredibly honored that she said yes and that she picks me every single day. I will always pick her. Happy anniversary, love!**

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Crazy difficult things that no one else is going to do. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what’s going to set you apart. Because the things that are easy, everyone’s already doing them. The things that are difficult are left to those who are crazy. Are you crazy enough? Am I?

I read this on Seth Godin’s blog a few days ago:

“How do we do something so difficult that others can’t imagine doing it?” is a fine question to ask today.

Crazy-Difficult

What are you going to do that no one else will even attempt?

Because it’s too crazy.
It’s too hard.
They don’t have time.
It can’t be done.

If we want to succeed, doing things that are just too crazy hard is a part of that path. And its a point where most people turn around.

What’s your crazy difficult? Getting dangerously close to “can’t be done” is where your awesome lives. Go ahead and take it because no one else is crazy enough to.

Happy Thursday!

Chris

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Yesterday, I had to go to a Comcast Service Center. I wasn’t excited about this. I got there as soon as they opened the doors and there were already 10 people waiting to get in. So I get in line inside the tiny waiting area with no chairs with the other people who either aren’t happy with their service, need something different, or are mad about how long the wait is. In short, no one else wanted to be there either.

There was a single service rep working and I noticed, through the grumbling, that her voice was cheerful and she was smiling. She was thanking people. She was incredibly kind and incredibly helpful. With every, single, unhappy customer.

When I finally got up to the front, I said to her “You’re doing a fantastic job! It must be incredibly hard to come to work in a place that no one wants to go to.”

She smiled at me, like she had done with everyone in line before me, and said “I believe the good always outweighs the bad.”

Wow. That is an outlook we could all use today. I sure needed it yesterday. I had already decided that my dealings with Comcast that day would be a bad experience. But I forgot one thing: Comcast employs humans.

Big companies are full of small, individual humans. Just like you. And small, individual humans make mistakes. That doesn’t excuse bad customer service. Nothing will ever excuse bad customer service. It just means that when you go into one of these places or call in to talk to “Comcast,” you’re talking to a human. Humans are capable of good and humans are capable of bad. Humans have good days and bad days.

I believe the good outweighs the bad.

Thank you, Comcast Service Rep., for reminding me that you’re not Comcast. You’re not a company. You’re a human and you made people’s lives a little bit better yesterday.

Happy Wednesday!

Chris

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  • comcastcares3 - Hi Chris,

    Thanks for sharing your positive experience!

    I work for Comcast. I just want to share your positive experience to the appropriate person. If you don;t mind, will you please let me know the location of the service center you visited?

    Thanks in advance,

    ComcastMark
    We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
    @ComcastMarkReplyCancel

Good morning, friends 🙂 We have returned from the mountains. Colorado is an amazing state. It was a whirlwind of a trip and I didn’t get to write as much as I’d planned. I’ll try not to let that happen again 🙂

Just a quick thought this morning about story. I’m reading Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years right now. I started it on the flight to CO and seriously couldn’t put it down. I have never read for that long on a plane for fear of getting motion sickness but it would have been worth it if I had met that end. In the book, Don and Ben and Steve are writing a film script. They’re writing a story based on Don’s life and a memoir he wrote (Blue Like Jazz). At one point, when they were trying to decide what was going to happen to Don to make the story more interesting, Don asks:

“What happens next?”
“What do we want to happen?” Steve answered.
What-Happens-next

 

I love that. I love it because we’re living in a story. We’re trying to make a better character. If we want our character to be adventurous, then we go on more adventures. If we want our character to be more successful, then we start doing things that successful people do. If we want our character to have better relationships, or to be a reader, or a writer, or a musician, we make him do the work he has to do to make it real. We don’t always get to choose what happens next but we always get to choose how our character responds, reacts, and moves forward. Our story is not limited to the things that happen to us. Circumstance is not the writer of our story.

What happens next?
What do you want to happen?

Happy Tuesday!

Chris

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We’re in Colorado. Yesterday we climbed up Pikes Peak (With a car. Not with our feet) with some very good friends. And with every turn of the winding road a new scene would unfold. Tall evergreens, still lakes reflecting the mountain’s peak, boulders and rocks stacked in perfect form. With the windows down you could smell the mountain and feel the air change as we climbed to the 14,000 foot summit.

Climbing mountains literally takes your breath away. Like seriously, can not breathe up there. But the shortness of breath was actually extremely helpful to me as it forced me to stop. As if the mountain forced me to stop and attempt to take it all in. As I looked out from the peak I had one thought in my head: Mountains exist.

They exist to remind us how to live: with adventure and in awe.

They exist to show us how to create: with everything we have. To make beautiful things full of heart and to make them good.

They exist to show us what awesome looks like. Quiet literally.

Mountains-Exist
They exist. It’s awesome. I’m glad.

Happy Tuesday!

Chris

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