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What Really Matters?
 What Really Matters? 1024 512 Jason Lauritsen
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Last week, our community experienced something that you hope no community anywhere ever must. A car crash took the lives of four high school girls and left a fifth in the hospital in serious condition and a lifetime of healing ahead of her.

The community is reeling, trying to make sense of this tragedy. A mother of one of the girls who died is a friend of ours. In the past week, we’ve been to a celebration of life ceremony for the four girls and a funeral for our friend’s daughter.

It’s heavy stuff. We have been trying to make sense of how best to help and be supportive of our friend, her family, and the community. It’s hard to know. But we keep trying.

It has been a painful reminder of how fragile life is and how suddenly it can be taken from us. Anytime a senseless tragedy like this happens, it always prompts me to reflect on an important question.

What Really Matters?

We get so distracted by the minutiae of our lives. The small annoyances can occupy such large chunks of our attention. And, we allow our time to be washed away by our daily routines.

As we stood at the celebration of life ceremony, watching a video that had been created of photos and videos of the girls together and with their families, this question seemed extra poignant.

The answer for me this week was time with my family. Time with the people who I love most on the planet. That’s what matters.

So, my schedule changed. For the first time in so long I can’t remember, our entire family (including the 22-year-old) made time to go to the zoo together. And then on a separate day, we all went to see a movie together. Another morning, the younger kids and I went out for a hike together.

In the wake of this tragedy in our small community, I found a reminder to do what matters most. And while my heart still aches for our friend and my community, my heart is also full from being with my people.

What Really Matters?

This is such a powerful question. When you really sit with it for a while, it’s hard to escape the truth that we spend so much of our time on things that don’t matter so much–in life and at work.

It’s a question that prompts focus. It’s a question that cuts through the distractions.

It shouldn’t be asked only in times of tragedy or crisis. It can be equally powerful when you are trying to chart the path forward with your team at work. It is also powerful when you feel overwhelmed in work or in life.

Time is our most important resource. It is finite and non-renewable. Being intentional about how we spend it is, perhaps, one of the most important things we can learn to do if we want a happy, fulfilling life.

I hope that you can find a few minutes today or sometime soon to consider this question.

Because you really matter. And your time is precious.

Before the Resolutions, Work on Your Purpose
 Before the Resolutions, Work on Your Purpose 300 168 Jason Lauritsen
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Yesterday, as I was climbing onto the treadmill to start undoing the damage I’d done to my body over the holiday, I noted how few people were at the gym.

Then I thought, “Next week is going to be different.”

It’s resolution time of year. Next week, the gym will be full of new people and those who haven’t been in a while. All of them full of New Year’s inspired resolve.

For someone who goes to the gym regularly, it’s an inconvenience to have so many people packing the gym. But I know it won’t last.  It never does.

Within a month, things will return to normal. New Year’s resolve gone.

Setting resolutions and goals alone is typically not enough to drive the sustainable behavior change needed to see meaningful results. Getting in shape, for example, is really hard. It means changing your diet and giving up foods you probably love. It means doing workouts that you are not good at that leave you feeling the next day as if you got run over by a truck.

It’s hard. And because it’s hard, you are likely to quit.

Unless.

If you want to keep more of your resolutions and meet more of your goals, start by first getting crystal clear on why they are important.

Why do you want to get in better shape? What consequence will it have in your life when you succeed (or fail)?

Is it to feel better and have more energy to play with your kids or spend time with friends?  Is it to avoid suffering from some serious health conditions that could take everything away?

When you are clear on your “why,” it’s harder to quit.

The workouts might suck, but you aren’t quitting on the workouts, you are quitting on your kids (or your future, etc.). Being clear on the purpose behind your goals is where real resolve comes from.

This the same reason that so many projects and goals fall short at work as well.

Organizations often commit themselves to improve employee engagement in the same way we set resolutions to get in better shape. It seems like the right thing to do and it seems like everyone else is doing it.

So we survey our employees. And despite the fact that our leaders think everything is fine, we discover that it’s not so great for the employees. And, making the needed changes is going to be hard.

You will probably quit. Mainly because you (and everyone else) aren’t sure exactly why any of this really matters.

If you want to make an impact at work towards creating a better work experience for your employees, start with purpose. Before you set any goals or make any plans, get really clear on why it matters.

Is it to improve your employees’ lives? Is it to improve organizational performance? Is it to save your organization from going out of business?

There’s a lot of reasons why you can and should care about employees’ experience at work. The important step is to uncover and articulate why it matters for your organization.

Because doing this work, like getting in better shape, is hard work.  And when you (or your leaders) want to quit, you need to remember that you aren’t quitting on a survey or an HR project. You are quitting on the organization or your employees’ future.

Before you start writing out resolutions or making plans for next year, invest some time in thinking about why any of it matters. Goals and intentions built on a solid foundation of purpose are far more powerful and effective.

Make 2019 your best ever by starting with clarity about what really matters.

Happy New Year!

Jason Lauritsen