Having his own successful business had always been
one of Jack’s dreams. Despite the fact that his financial
services business was growing, he was feeling frustrated. “When
I am at home with my family, I am thinking about things I need to
do at the office. And when I am at the office, I lament that I am
not spending more time with my family,” Jack told me.
We explored possibilities for changing that frustration. One decision
he made was to be fully present wherever he was. As we coached,
he related how he flipped on the television to watch the news while
he ate breakfast with his boys each morning. I asked Jack, ”If
you were fully present with your sons, how would that time be different?”
The following week, he was delighted to tell me how much he enjoyed
his sons without the TV. He also discovered that by ‘being
present’ at work, he was focusing on and accomplishing his
goals more easily.
Jack also had a dream of climbing the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado,
but because of his busy schedule, he had given up that dream. We
explored the possibility of him training regularly and spending
two weeks a year with his friends climbing in the mountains. He
started 2006 by marking out five weeks of free time on his calendar.
By doing that, he was able to schedule a vacation with his family
as well as the climbing trip. At the end of the year, he was shocked
to discover that by taking a lot more time off to rejuvenate, he
was a better dad, husband and businessman. In fact, he set a new
bar in his business by exceeding all his 2006 production goals.
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