to help other people at all times

this morning i knocked out a nasty hangover by doing 8 hard miles through the forest preserve. on my first lap around, i noticed a crew of kids and adults replacing old rotted out fence posts and rails. at first, i thought this might be a community service thing but upon rounding the next corner of the path, i saw a second crew doing the same thing. one of the adults was wearing a boy scout t-shirt.

on my second lap around, i asked the boy scout shirt if this was an eagle scout project. it was. the adult pointed out the candidate and i offered my congratulations and wished him luck.

i continued on my run and began planning out all of the things i had to do today. clean up house, clean out car, finish store budget, blah blah blah. on the third lap, i threw all of it out the window. to make a long story short, i went home, changed, and spent an absolutely gorgeous afternoon helping out a perfect stranger with his eagle project by digging post holes and hauling lumber around. it felt pretty darn good.

as i reflect on the afternoon, i notice how much i have changed since i did my project. i was a lot like this eagle candidate...always be doing the hard work. he was constantly hauling stuff around and digging. he, just like i did, will eventually learn the lesson that managing your team effectively is far more valuable than doing the grunt work. i tried to subtly tell him this but, as it was not my show, it was not my place to say anything. on several occasions, i had a hard time resisting the urge to jump into a leadership role. my how i've changed.