Do you hold yourself and your team to practicing discipline and consistency with regard to daily tasks?  Or, do you operate your work life passively and in a reactive manner, responding to whatever is thrown in front of you?  Over the last couple weeks, I have had reason to reflect on this question for myself, our company, and my marriage.

This reflection began when I read a blog titled "Why I Hope to Die Empty," by Todd Henry.  It got me thinking about the importance of not wasting our days on frivolous undertakings, but instead making use of our talents consistently and completely, until the day we die.

My initial reaction was one of exhaustion.  To many of us, this call to "empty ourselves," can sound like we're being asked to run a marathon, plus wind sprints, every day without any rest.  That sounds hard, doesn't it?  As a result, I attempted to ignore the content of this blog at first, however, it continued to relentlessly pester me.  I had several interactions throughout the last few weeks that forced me to consider this concept again and again.  The final straw came when the pastor of our church preached on the "Parable of the Ten Minas."  This parable centers around the importance of using our talents and resources for purposeful and responsible growth.

At that point, I realized that I could no longer ignore this important message.  I began to consider, once again, how I could be graded along the continuum when it comes to using my talents and resources well.  As usual, there were places I could be graded well, and other places…not so well.  However, what fascinated me much more than the tally of pluses and minuses were the reasons for my successes.  I demonstrated tremendous growth where my talents and resources were well invested.

As it turns out, and only upon weeks of reflection,  I realized that the  "A grades" in my life have not come from the home runs, the one time discoveries, or any presentation I've ever delivered.  Instead, they've consistently shown up as a result of getting on base every day…the bunts, the bloopers, and the infield singles.  Whether it has been in my education, my marriage, therapy with my patients, writing the blog, executing our business well, or interacting with others — it's the small proactive activities, executed with discipline and consistency that have produced almost all of the growth in myself and others involved in those tasks.  Each activity, each day, in and of itself, never felt like I was doing anything that spectacular.  Most of it felt rather mundane and ho-hum.

I don't want you to get the idea that I have done anything heroic at all…or that I haven't made plenty of mistakes or wasted precious resources of talent, treasure, and time.  I have!  But, I'm beginning to see that the ho-hum, do-the-right-thing, plan-and-execute-tasks-proactively lifestyle… IS Heroic.  In looking at what has driven the truest, most sustainable impact, it's only been through years of doing what seems like the "mundane" right thing, that the lives of patients have changed, neighbors have confided in me, young couples have been mentored, companies have trusted us, and friendships have been built.

Not all of the above activities came with great willingness on my part either.  Ben Hess (Business Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, and now friend) ultimately had to convince me that jointly writing this blog twice weekly, would be time well spent for, not only our business partners, but for us and our own learning.  I resisted, thinking that it would be time we could be spending on other tasks (this is called lazy).  Ben couldn't have been more accurate in his recommendation.

So I urge you to ask your self these questions:

"What small steps am I taking consistently and proactively that have an impact on the growth of my business, the business of others, and the lives of others?"

"Am I spending the majority of my life reacting to circumstances of business and life without consistent, disciplined action?"  If so, "What talents am I ignoring by doing that?"

"What proactive tasks can I add to my schedule that will SLOWLY add value to the business, others, and my own learning?"

"What tasks are already right under my nose- right now- that I am actively avoiding?"

This should keep you busy for awhile…