Hey Gang,
Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock, captures a focus on his way out of the gym in the post above. While quoting his friend, he says, “I don’t HAVE to work out, I GET to…”
Massive Thank You from me for your friendship, business, interactions, emails, calls, and texts throughout 2024. Working with you, for you, and beside you in business is an absolute pleasure.
Agritourism is a big family. The society of friends, friends who share willingly and interact with each other, built this industry in a way other industries simply haven’t figured out. You and I get to be a part of it.
As you might have noticed, Yearend is a particularly reflective season for me. At church, I help on the sound board during services, sing in the choir, and have been called on to play music and participate in two funerals in the past two weeks.
Yep, two older members passed away during the Christmas season. It’s like adding insult to injury, right? These were not my relatives, though everyone in my area of rural Pennsylvania is related somehow. Watching two families grieve back to back in different, beautiful ways puts a lot on you.
We lost my mother-in-law earlier this year, and cycling through my wife’s grief, my grief, our kid’s grief, and two extra families’ grief set me up for impact.
Dwayne proposes that we reframe the work in our life, even the mundane, as a privilege. He didn’t want to work out; he gets to work out.
We don’t want to go to work; we get to go to work. You don’t want to pay your taxes; you get to pay your taxes. You don’t want to host your relatives; you get to host your relatives. You don’t want to call your mother; you get to call your mother because, one day, you won’t get to.
Every single day and action is a privilege because someday your favorite aunt is gone, your kids move away, or you’re gone.
Everything is a privilege, every single minute.
If you don’t believe me, go to a couple of funerals. Listen to the stories at the reception afterward. One of my favorite things about my church is that we all go to the social hall after the service, eat food together, talk, laugh, tell stories, catch up with the now-grown-up kids of the deceased, and celebrate a life well-lived.
Do you start every day to live a life well-lived?
Discipline is doing what you know you should do to achieve a stated vision, even when you don’t feel like it. Athletes and coaches talk about it. Sales coaches talk about it. We all know we need more of it.
What if your discipline this year, your resolution, was simply to remind yourself as soon as you hear your inner critic, your inner complainer, your inner frustration rise, you say your own version, your own mantra as a reminder, “I don’t have to, I get to.”
I wish only the very best for you in 2025. I wish you a year in which you “get to” each and every day.
Have a great New Year,
Hugh
