Reset

Sorry for the delay in getting out this musing. I was flying to San Antonio yesterday to meet with the management of a family company with a lot of similarity to Kimray. We are able to learn so much from sharing our histories and operations with other companies that have the same challenges and opportunities we do.

On the plane rides to SA, I read “Reset” by David Murray (thanks to Mike Dudleson for giving me the book.) I highly recommend each of you read it. Murray gives very engaging and easy to assimilate suggestions for how to gain back the margin in our lives that is constantly being eroded by the pressure to perform and produce.

Interestingly, this is part of the trap I was in prior to my collapse. I was burning myself to a crisp trying to outperform the previous day. Murray addresses the false beliefs and value systems as well as the habits and patterns that cause this kind of burnout, and he does it really well.

Then I got to spend the day, and evening, with the CEO of a family business with many of the same historical challenges and current opportunities we have at Kimray. His story was eerily similar to mine. He actually did an interview a while back for a business magazine where he told about having a conversation with God where he finally said, “God, I’ve been doing this my way for my whole life and it’s not working. I’m going to do it your way now.”

This gentleman was able to correct his path before a complete collapse, but so many people don’t.

I didn’t.

It is my intent that Kimray be a place where we are intentional about caring for each other in ways that help limit the chance of someone burning out. Our values, the way we respect and value each other, our work ethics and our environment are all part of how we take care of ourselves.

We can do more, and we will, but each individual is ultimately responsible for their own mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. I pray for all of you that you will find your worth in who God made you to be, not what you do. I pray that you will pace yourself and create the margin you need each and every day. I pray that together we can continue to create a place where really great work gets done by really great people who also have really great lives.

That’s the Kimray way!