December 13: Be Excellent

What are three things you are better at than most people. (Catie) 

My husband's favorite high school teacher had a saying that he used in class quite often. That saying was "Be excellent." It's hard to argue with the wisdom of your husband's favorite teacher...especially when that favorite teacher is also your own father. :)

So here we go:

1) Being a fired-up tour guide. 
One thing that I'm pretty fantastic at is playing tour guide and introducing people to some of my favorite things. There are few things I love more than taking folks on their maiden voyage to one of my old stand-bys. Getting ready for your first trip to Target Field? the State Fair? Al's Breakfast? The Blue Door Pub? Please, please, please let me take you! Oh, you'll like it just fine on your own, but I bet you'll like it even more with me. It isn't so much that I think I know more about these places (or events or whatever) than other people...likely, I don't. But I just get so darn fired up...so proud of whatever it is...so excited about whatever it is...and I want to introduce you to it...I want you to love it as much as I do.

2) Getting to the core of it.
File this under "Things-I-hope-I-do-and-try-really-hard-to-do-but-I'm-not-sure-if-I'm-always-successful": I try really hard to get to the core of the people in my life. Especially in regard to working with others over a long period of time. I try very hard to understand who people are and what motivates them. I try to make sense of what matters to them and even what their fears are. I try to remember to view situations and experiences through their lenses, instead of just through my own. I feel like this allows all of us, in a given situation, to figure out what is really at stake...what is really driving the conversation or the disagreement or the whatever. I try to consider what things are really about at the center of it all...at the core...and then we work our way out from there.

3) Yelling at Jay.
Poor Jay. I can always find a reason to crank at him. It's an amazing talent of mine. Fortunately for everyone involved, the thing that Jay is better at than most people is defusing my churlishness. The best example of this--ever--was one particular night when we were hurrying around the house, tidying up, doing dishes, making the bed...Jay was cracking jokes...I was annoyed. Because apparently, I can't listen to jokes and clean at the same time.

I turned to him and--dead serious--snapped, "I'm not in the mood for this crap!"

Without missing a beat, Jay--dead serious--replied, "What kind crap are you in the mood for?"

 I love it when we're all excellent at our roles.