JULY 1 2022

6PM

This was the first day of the long awaited Camino hike!

6 months ago, it was just an idea, and today it’s happening. And we survived the first day: 5000 feet of elevation & 15.7 miles.

LETTING GO.

When I first was thinking of doing this trip, I knew that I’d need to put a bunch of things into place to even entertain the idea of letting go from work for 3 weeks. I love my work so very much, but so much of it has been me doing the back-end work. Schedule changes, w9 requests, inquiries, and more; I was the first responder.  I knew that I needed 1)clearly written systems & expectations, so that someone else could attempt to make educated judgement calls.  Clear cancelation policies, email response time, every detail of programs offered & fee schedules, lose scripts for sales conversations, and templates for common requests of coaching or team programs, for starters. Then 2) I’d need someone to train and delegate to.  I realized that the best way for my trust with someone to increase is for them to follow through on what they say they are going to do, aka not let things fall through the cracks. And lastly 3) a communication system for my absence. Voxer, Trello & flags in Outlook have been the perfect trifecta & Courtney has amazing follow-through.

Many of my clients want to work on delegation, and their biggest self-proclaimed obstacle is trust. I can relate 100% & that’s why this process was so good for me to do. The first thing we talk about is that delegation is not about blind trust, and that quality does not need to suffer.  We create written expectations, systems, delegation recipients & decide what’s to delegate, & make a communication plan. Then the path begins of short-term pain (it takes time to train someone & devise these systems) and the road to freedom is created. I am enjoying the fruits now!

SPIRITUAL QUEST.

This trail is 1000+ years old and has served as a spiritual pilgrimage. 56,000 pilgrims annually hike the “French Way” like us. The start is in the Pyrenees mountains in France and end at the end of the 480 miles, people converge in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. (I’m just doing 251 miles if all goes well.) When thinking about what I wanted to gain, I came up with this: deep relaxation.  For better or worse, I have a tendency to be quite driven.  With this, I can sometimes forget to play, even though I absolutely know the importance. When I got my cancer diagnosis in Dec. 2019, the goal I had was to be the “CFO” of my life.  Kelley McKee coined the phrase, meaning that I was committing to Chill the F**k Out instead of pushing so hard and operating with intensity.  So with this hike I choose: smelling the roses. Being in my body instead of my head. Enjoying the big and the small things.  Having other identities other than work. Being present with nature and adventure Bizzy and Kym, 2 soul sisters of my life, & Mark/Miles/Ruby (all joining at different times over my 3 weeks).  Gaining new perspectives merely from having distance from my life (it happens every time I step away, but I never know how it will show up). Just breathing.

CONVERSATION TOPICS OF THE DAY

Personality types, the pros and cons of adaptability, parenting teens, accents, diversity, standardization, stages of team dynamics, Japan, sweat, connection & productivity expectations, sheep poop, plant IDing, and started the day off with a prayer for our knees. 

For photos, follow @lancasterleadership on Instagram.