A Rose is a Rose is a …

 

…nub.  Happy February.  I spent nearly a whole chilly day last weekend chiseling my rose bushes down to thorny brown nubs.  No bursts of fabulous color present…just rough, skewed nubs.

Fact is, I am a “nubber”.  Roses are not the only things in my path.   I am tough on leaders, too.  Indeed, members of a fast-tracking entrepreneur group I work with have joked about getting shirts that say “I Have Been Nubbed”.  It’s OK.  No fingers or limbs have been sacrificed for the making of this motto.  So, what is going on here?

It’s cutting to grow.

Cutting back to the core, to where the unique, amazing sap of who we are runs sweet and clear, is work fraught with risk, pain, uncertainty.  In the process we eliminate energy-sapping bulges in our journey and cut off life lines to shoots that bloomed beautifully but will not serve us going forward.  It is going bold and becoming more of who we are by cutting to the core… clean cuts to the gnarly stub.

This time, this day calls for redefining “green,” “growth”,” success”, ”thrive”.  This time, this “now ” calls for belief in what runs through the very core of us.  I offer that you take bold action.  Find your way to be “nubbed”.  Cut down to this:

·         What is at the core of you?

·         What no longer serves you?

·         What does a “nubbed” you look like?

·         What can flourish from there?

Trust that those sparse nubs will thrive.  Know that you will not grow like years past.  This is different.   Do trust that from nubs you will find your true path this season. 

What will YOUR bloom look like?

The Power of 51

 

A couple of decades ago, I served as an instructor for the U.S.  Army Physical Fitness School… the first female officer to do so.  Surprise!  A key part of our mission was to certify select soldiers to serve as Master Fitness Trainers in their units around the world.  The academically and physically rigorous 4-week class trained up to 60 elite soldier-athletes… approximately 90% of which were men.                                                       

My favorite session to lead was a one hour Pushup and Sit Up Improvement session.  This hands-on learning event was certainly not for the faint of heart or for those who might enjoy a big breakfast.  It was grueling.  In order to maximize the growth of large muscle groups, we did pushups in dozens of permutations of angles and space… arms as wide as possible with one foot off the ground and a fellow soldier pushing on your back, one hand on 2 sandbags and one hand on the ground, and my favorite: hands close together in a diamond shape with your feet up on another soldiers back… yeah!  We didn’t do these pushups in cadence together but rather in timed sets of 60, 45, and 30 seconds so that each soldier could maximize their effort.  Some would do 30 pushups some would do 50 pushups.  The goal for each set (and we did dozens during the session) was to do as many correct pushups as you could… to muscle failure… the point where the growth comes from.  Yes, we cranked them out until muscle failure…set after painful set.  Ouch….but that is what we were all striving for: to get to the growth. 

You see, the first 10 or 30 or 50 pushups served to get you to the point where you could just eek out that one last, correct push up and make your leap in strength.  You had to do the hard work to get to the other side, where the real growth is made.  Indeed, that sweet space that makes all of the difference is right there: Push Up #51. 

Check in with yourself right now.  Things feel tough?  Struggling to help your business survive?   Feel like you have your feet up on a wall and your hands close together with burning triceps and a bit of nausea?  I agree with Seth Godin… it might be time to quit (do read The Dip).  But, if the path is right, push on.  See things through.  Want that other side… that growth.  Breathe.  Crank!   48, 49, 50 …

 

When Standing is Moving

 

Where do you stand?  Don’t look down.  Look up.  Look out.  Way out.  Waaaaayyyy out.  Are you standing in uncharted space, beyond what you know, past what is comfortable, so far out that business-as-usual is not viewable with the naked eye?

                Rare.  Bold.  Authentic.  Yeah, I am talking about you.  You are one who stands in compelling possibility… one who declares an impossible outcome and shouts: “it shall be!”.  You put your bold stand out there and you make it so.  It is how you show up, 24/7: in your stand for what is possible for you, your team, your business.

                Says passionate, cutting edge thinker Tom Peters:

·         Leaders THRIVE

·         Leaders are the brand

·         Leaders create opportunities

·         Leaders say “I don’t know”

Crank up your stand for 2009.  Can you stand for something you can’t even see?  Can you deliver results others claim impossible?  Seriously.  If you want amazing results, stand for something amazing.  You can move teams and businesses and customers with your audacity and your passion for what is possible.

                “What you imagine is what you get”  - Tom Peters

Take a stand and tell us what you are imagining.