Be Intentional About It

I had lunch the other day with a friend who had been fired from his job of 35 years. This particular person was instrumental in getting me into radio in the first place, in fact, if it were not for him I would not be here, so I was excited to grab lunch. At the end of the lunch he said "we should do this more often," and that phrase stuck with me all day. Having been away from my old job for nearly three months you understand very quickly how you can take those lunches or coffees for granted as people you have seen for 20 years just..disappear. 

Intention to me, is the thing you do for others when they don't expect it - surprise and delight. Grabbing a lunch with someone who is a cubicle over is simple. Grabbing lunch with a friend at another company, with a different lunchtime, across town when you have only an hour for lunch - takes intention.

Evelyn got a Christmas card this morning and I thought more about intention. Seeing her light up because someone took a couple steps to mail her one made me wonder why we don't send more artifacts year round. There is a magic this time of year that cannot be replicated and I understand that, but what if we could take a moment and think about how we feel RIGHT NOW. Then see if you could replicate that feeling just once or twice in 2015, three times if you are feeling frisky.

I find myself calling and texting my former co-workers more, doing coffee more, grabbing lunches when I can, and wish I had done more of it earlier. Excuses are easy, relationships are hard. So as you head into the holidays and into 2015, take a moment and call someone you have been meaning to, just to say "hi." You might find it becomes infectious.

I have watched this video from Gary Vaynerchuk a bunch this weekend, he calls it "hustle" but we are talking about the same thing. Doing things that matter to you, your family, or your friends with an intensity that others are unwilling to do because they want to spend their nights consuming media rather than creating it - because those are the options these days.

In 5 days Christmas will be over and we will move from the feelings of giving and expressions of intention to the seemingly useless list of resolutions you won't keep. Fight those urges to compartmentalize your goals and instead just do them. Make them a part of your every day world and they will become muscle memory. Be intentional. Don't wait to start and if you prefer to call it hustle, I am good with that - as long as you do it.