Happy Birthday Willie!

Willie Nelson turned 72 today and I am celebrating with a trip down memory lane:

Whiskey River – lots of late nights at college with my girlfriends begging the Wayne Mills Band to play this tune just one more time. We also had our own dance to this tune.

Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys – one of my daddy’s favorites. I remember him, a normally shy singer, not afraid to let us hear him belt out this tune.

Georgia – one of my mom’s favorites and mine. A man can make me melt just by asking me to dance to this song but only if it is Willie’s version.

On the Road Again – every road trip the 810 girls and I took in college this was blasting throughout the car. We even had our own lyrics but I can’t reveal everything on my blog.

Thanks Willie for making music, music that reminds me of some very special memories that I will always cherish.

Letting Go

I was listening to all the current stories of a person I thought I used to know, a person who played a significant role in my past with disbelief that I really didn’t know that person at all or maybe I just chose not to see them for who they really were. I was more disillusioned at the role I must have played in their life…very different from the role I hoped in my heart to be true. After several days of thinking about this and our past relationship, I realized I was wasting valuable time and energy on something and someone I could not control.

I could not change the past or change the person but I could choose to let go and move on.

I had been planning for several weeks to drive for a quick weekend trip to Birmingham to see my niece’s dance recital. I had just visited at Easter and I have been traveling a lot for work lately so I knew this trip was not what was best for me. But since I have moved away I continue to struggle with the guilt of missing birthdays, holidays, parties, etc. for friends and family.

As I lay awake at 4am on Friday morning (the day I was supposed to leave) I realized that I had to let go of the guilt I carry about my move. Living here is what is best for me and just because I can’t be at every function down south does not change how important my friends and family are to me. So early Friday I called my family and gave them the news that I had decided not to travel without feeling guilty, a definite first for me.

You can probably relate to one of the above situations where holding onto something such as fear, disappointments, failure, your past, or guilt was wearing you down. Holding on to negative feelings zaps your joy and builds resentment in your heart.

The great news is there is an alternative – letting go. Give yourself permission to move on and relish in the freedom you will feel from simply letting go.

Take Care of Your People

In my quest to become a master of Customer service I was drawn to a book in the Chicago airport, Customer Mania by Ken Blanchard, Jim Ballard and Fred Finch. The book using examples from Yum!, the world's largest restaurant company, to explain how any company can create a Customer-focused environment.

One way they recommend is to focus on your people. No, not your people as in your Customers but your staff, your teams, your employees.

Simply put "if you put your people first and recognize their efforts, they will put your Customers first."

Does your leadership put your people first? If not, you may standing in the way of creating a Customer-focused environment.