Where are my values taking me?

I gotta be honest with you, the 30 year old Jesse rolls his eyes every time I speak about Values and the current me rolls his eyes every time I read about a companies values. Mostly because Ive met their people and they do not demonstrate the bullet points that are on the website.

But Im just gonna put my values out there and invite the judges to pick em a part. Cuz I know their picking helps me:

- get clearer

- stay the course

Maybe thats what companies are attempting to do. Anyhow if youre expecting the "top 10 reasons why you should define your values" this blog aint for you.

Im gonna work through explaining what my values are, well more like listing em out and diving deep into the first one. So here we go:

• Being on Time
• Be Generous
• Be Fearless

While catchy, these bullet points leave way too much white space for other people to color in with their understanding of what these values represent in Jesse-land.

Being on Time for me is not the tired ole "if youre not early, youre late" chest pounders love to spew. Because the desks & chairs were early and so what. It aint about perfect attendance.

Lets get into it

"Being On Time" is more about being present in the moment. Being available to serve the people in front of me to the greatest degree possible. The magic is in the front end work that "Being On Time" requires of me. 

Let me ask you, how many times have you slid in right before the meeting started, then rushed to shake hands and say hello to everyone. Then as things get kicked off your getting your favorite note taking device out and situating your stuff? Were you really on time? Was your frazzled mind keeping you from contributing to the conversation?

If I beat the clock but fail to contribute in a meaningful way, I wasnt on time. 

Who cares if I beat the clock because I missed the connection time, those 10 to 15 minutes before the meeting starts where I can learn something new about my colleagues or talk smack about "the late people"😉

Now, "Being On Time" doesnt just mean be 10 to 15 minutes early. Because I used to pride myself on being early but I wasnt available to the people in front of me. I was distracted getting my things in order or checking my messages. I had to check my messages cuz they were pulling on my attention, they always do. So knocking out my message checking has to happen before I arrive.

Today most of the time I share space with people I am at the front of the room working hard to deliver an experience that causes subtle mind shifts. The preparation of these experiences can not happen while Im commuting to the place. I will typically spend enormous amounts of time obsessing about how to contextualize the material to the people in the room, integrating lessons learned and new clarity Ive picked up along the way. This does not happen the night before the dance. But if it doesnt happen I aint On Time.

So "Being On Time" is really is a state of BEING and every single appointment, commitment, and meeting are status checks for me to gauge how far off my values I have veered.

And I invite you to point out the times you see me not "Being on Time"