Welcome to the End
Dear friend,
And just like that, it's over. The one hour virtual gathering, affectionally known as the Ownership Accelerator, came to a conclusion this week. It was a six-week commitment 10 of my clients, colleagues and friends* made to the pilot program. It exceeded every hope I had. The conversations were transparent, the content was refreshing, and the ideation was relevant and incredibly useful.
The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes famously says "there is a season for everything" meaning endings are as necessary as beginnings. They typically don't feel as energizing or exciting, because conclusion seems final. And most of us are living in the middle. We're not at the start or end, and we're not sure where either of those points are within context of our current reality.
That's why a brief 6-week run is a sprint. I remember when it started, and now I feel the loss of it ending. But what was gleaned, invested and extracted is all very fresh. And because it was a pilot program, we had the freedom to not have it dialed-in, but be in experiment mode. That didn't relieve the pressure for executing with excellence, but it did have a baked-in grace I was counting on.
How do you handle endings? When was the last time something you cared about came to a close? I have gotten better over the years, but I seem to always be surprised by them. My good friend David McLaughlin and I had similar views about friendships. We thought they'd last forever. And when they didn't, we took it very personally. Thankfully, he and I's friendship WILL last forever. 😜
PERMANENT or PAUSE
I was probably 23 when my first really great adult friend, whom I thought I'd do life with forever, moved. I cried like a baby. It was so unexpected. It took about a year before he moved back and we picked up where left off. Thus my lesson that endings aren't actually the end. The finality feels permanent, yet if we remain alive, endings can simply be a pause.
Though jobs, relationships, homes, locations, dreams, and abilities can all permanently cease to be. Starting is inseparable from ending, even if a transition from one to the other occurs. Staying attuned to what's next, helps us process, learn, and grow from what was. We humans loathe loss and go to great extremes to prevent it. Yet inevitably what comes after offers opportunities to become more.
MINDSHIFT
What if you stopped resisting conclusion and grabbed ahold of what's awaiting you in the new season?
CONGRATS, IT'S OVER!
Several years ago, another friend of mine got fired. He's a high-caliber guy. I had no doubt whatever happened next, he was going to thrive. So I created this whole package around "Congrats, You Got Fired." It was in the spirit of having a new baby. Like very exciting, unknown and such a blessing. I wanted to mass-market it. The team around me at the time, thought it was a really bad idea. I capitulated.
Fear and anxiety love endings. They take it as a personal invitation to magnify themselves. Whereas faith and hope are like "Welcome to the end, I wonder what you'll discover now?" Hindsight is everyone's favorite kind of sight, because of the distance from the emotional moment and assurance of what followed. Self-awareness and foresight are actually available during the swan song. We typically need someone beside us to remind us.
MINDSHIFT
What if you genuinely celebrated like it was a grand finale and believed that what's coming will be so much better than what was?
TEMPORARY
I knew the Ownership Accelerator was a temporary engagement, so it's completion brings me loads of joy. We maximized what time we had together and walked away better people for it. What if we viewed all of life as a temporary existence? Would endings and beginnings carry the same weight or could they be normalized as expected components? Permanency gives us security. Granted, there are a few things that I sure would like to last forever.
Stewarding life as an entrusted gift enables a healthy perspective about stops & starts.
My first adult-friend-loss, later moved on again. I handled it much better. My fired friend started a business that is thriving and creating opportunities for so many others. What disables you and me from experiencing all the best in the new season is trying to remain, retain and return to the one that is now no more. Don't do that. Let go and go on.
SHIFTING
I hope this week you appreciate the "middle" you are living in. May endings and beginnings blur together in a way that let's you love them both. #ShiftAway
*They're all really friends. I just need to include those other terms so it sounds more businessy.
