Head Out the Window

4 min read | Easy Reflection

There is something about a dog with his head out the car window.

Gunner is not worried about where we were yesterday.

He is not mentally rehearsing tomorrow.

He is completely absorbed in what is happening now.

Wind.

Scents.

Movement.

The ride itself.

Watching that kind of joy is a useful reminder for someone who naturally spends a lot of time thinking about what comes next.

Ambitious people are exceptionally good at moving the horizon.

Reach one goal.

Immediately identify the next.

Solve one problem.

Find another.

The drive that creates achievement can also make us remarkably poor at experiencing it.

Leadership requires goals.

Purpose requires something more.

We need to remember why the work matters while we are doing it.

Otherwise, careers become a series of destinations we reach too quickly to appreciate.

Teams experience this too.

If every achievement is followed only by a new expectation, people eventually stop experiencing progress.

They simply experience more work.

Make room to notice the ride.

Celebrate something before replacing it with the next goal.

Tell the team what their work changed.

Recognize the person who grew.

Spend a little time inside the moment you worked so hard to create.

Purpose is not always found in some enormous future accomplishment.

Sometimes it is available in what is happening right now—if we are present enough to notice it.

Gunner certainly is.

Head out the window.

Wind in his face.

Fully alive for the ride.

Are you so focused on where you’re going that you are missing what is worth experiencing along the way?