Right Wisdom

Today is my birthday and for the most part I had an enjoyable day. Didn’t really do anything too special except my kids made my special egg sandwich and served it to me in bed this morning and then for dinner my wife made one of my favorites, salmon loaf. Other than that I spent some time watching the Gophers win and the Twins win. I played a video game with my son and built with Legos. I spent some of the time cleaning and played my favorite game APBA Baseball. Birthdays aren’t always big events as you get older it becomes the little things that make it special. The opportunity to have your family around and just spending time with everyone is sometimes gift enough. What does this have to do with a leadership blog? All leaders have birthdays so as a leader take some time to celebrate your birthday. Obviously not everyone’s birthday is today or this weekend but whenever it is celebrate that special day. What makes that day special for you? Take time to enjoy the little things t...

I am going to deviate slightly from my normal Saturday post. I usually post a leisure activity that leaders can do on those weekends to break away from the busy activities of a leader. Last week in fact I talked about the opening weekend of the Minnesota State Fair. The fair ends on Labor Day and that is the day my family is planning on attending. What I will do is post my leisure post on Monday and give you some highlights of our trip to the fair. Today I just want to give a shout out to Labor Day and the end of summer. Technically it is not the end of summer but School is back and the days are getting shorter. Go out and spend this weekend just doing things you enjoy. Spend it with friends, family and yourself. Do those last things on your summer to do list. What haven’t you done this summer that you wanted to do? Do it this weekend and enjoy these final days of summer.

This past week I had the pleasure of having the week off from work. If you are a frequent stopper at my blog I apologize for missing a few days last week. My goal this year was to blog everyday of the year. I now have three blogs that I write, a sports one that I will occasionally write about sports happenings. A bible verse blog in which every Sunday I write a bible verse for the week. Then there is this blog which focuses on Leadership and on weekends what I call leisureship. The Grandview pool (Kids love it) As I said I was on vacation this past week. My focus today is on taking a vacation. Every leader needs a vacation they need time away from work and from leading. What better way to spend that time away then with a weeklong vacation. I spent the week at Grand View Lodge with my family and the in-laws. We had a great time. I spent time at the beach, in the water, with the kids. I was able to golf on one day. Watching and helping the kids fish off the dock was one of the...

It has been a busy weekend. Today I spent time at my oldest daughter’s graduation ceremony from William Mitchell Law School. Yesterday we spent time celebrating another daughter’s 11 th birthday. Some weekends can be very busy but as long as it is activities that are different from the work week it can make for a relaxing and quick weekend. Any time you spend time with family it is also a good time and being able to celebrate with family makes it even better. I know most of you don’t have a birthday to celebrate every weekend of the year. On those weekends when you do be sure to make them special for the person you are celebrating for. In yesterday’s blog I gave you some tips on how to create a less stress in your planning and celebrating the graduation of a loved one. Today I want to give you some essentials to making sure the person has a happy birthday when you are celebrating their birthday. ·          Food – Tray to always serve a ...

Today is Easter. The most important holiday for Christians. It is the day the Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Without His resurrection His death on the cross would have meant nothing. As the saying goes "He is risen, He is risen indeed". Today is a day about joy that Jesus is alive and He has paid the price for our sins. Take time today to spend at church reflecting on what Jesus did for you. It is also a great day to spend with family and friends. Many kids across the globe will be hunting for Easter baskets and eggs (no connection to the empty tomb). The egg part is fun if you are a kid. Make sure to keep things in perspective. Your leadership should take a backseat today to the leadership of Christ. He was a great leader by serving us and giving His life for us. Enjoy that and enjoy your family today. Hopefully you will feast around the table enjoying the food and the company. Take your mind off of all that leadership work you have been doing and e...

It may often seem that sometimes being a leader and playing that leadership role is like a game. It is a tough game to play and can be very exhausting at times. That is why it is important to spend your weekends relaxing and doing things you enjoy. Then you will be able to jump back into the game with a fresh perspective and win those leadership battles. This weekend take some time out of your busy leadership life and go back to playing those kids games. Set aside one of these evenings to have a family game night. Let your kids pick the games and enjoy some quality time with the family losing yourself in a game or two. What is your favorite game? Are you a Monopoly fan, how about Risk or maybe even Jenga. Whatever your pleasure or in this case your child's pleasure is enjoy playing those games. When you play these games with your kids be sure they assume the leadership roles. Let them be banking, or explain the rules. This will be an opportunity to start to shape the leaders ...

How is your weekend going? Are you spending time unwinding from the busy week you had leading others to success? I hope Saturday's blog helped give you some ideas to try. Today I am going to give you two more things you can do to help yourself relax and unwind on the weekend. This weekend we are focusing on family and staying around home. Make one of your weekend nights a movie night.       If you have kids watch a movie early that the whole family will enjoy. Depending on their ages a classic animated Disney or Pixar one is always a good choice. If you want one that isn't animated I recently saw Mr. Popper's Penguins that was a funny and entertaining movie. After the kids are in bed watch one that you like, make yourself popcorn and just lose yourself in the story. On Sunday be sure to go to church.      Hopefully you don't have a leadership role at church. Regardless of what religion you are faith is important to refreshing you...

All hardworking leaders need some leisure no and again. The weekend is the time for leisure. This weekend we are focusing on the time you spend with family. The leader needs time to rest, rejuvenate and relax and release yourself from the duties as a leader. What things can you do this weekend with your family that will help you avoid those leadership decisions? Here are two suggestions. I'll give you two more on tomorrow's blog. Go out to eat with your spouse or a loved one.           Find a restaurant that you both enjoy and go spend some quiet time away from the home and the office. Enjoy the ambiance of the restaurant and pick your favorite comfort food that is on the menu. Mine is fish, any meal I eat that includes fish and I'm not talking shrimp is comforting and relaxing for me. What is your comfort food? If you have kids play a game of their choice. If you don't have kids either play a game with some friends or enjoy an individ...

It is Friday and soon the weekend will be upon us. It is sometimes hard for leaders to pull away from that leading and just relax and enjoy the weekend. It is however very important to do so. If you find yourself being a leader during the week and then on weekends volunteering for projects that require your leadership you may find yourself burning out. It's okay to volunteer but find some time for yourself. As a leader you need the weekend to refresh and renew, decompress a little so you are energized for the week ahead. In this blog I am going to try and spend every weekend looking at ways leaders can escape from the life of leading and become just another face in the crowd. This will be an opportunity for you to find places to go and things to see that don't require your leadership abilities. This weekend I am going to focus on family time. Every Friday I will introduce the topic and then on Saturday and Sunday I will address two to three items that can make your weeken...

It is this time of year that brings a sparkle to children's eyes. That belief in something beyond the daily life, an escape from reality. For those of us with kids it brings special feelings that make having children worthwhile. Christmas is about faith and family. The reason we celebrate Christmas is for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. As we all gather in our houses to celebrate Christmas reflect on the true meaning. Share the real gift of Jesus to those around you and soak up the time you get to spend with family. You see I have five children and I am going to enjoy every moment spent with them. I am going to enjoy seeing my older daughter and her husband. It is their first Christmas as a married couple and I am proud that he is serving our country and I am proud of what a strong and smart woman she has become. My second daughter will be here as well and I really enjoy spending time with her. I am very proud of how hard she is working and that she continues to forge...

There was a Seinfeld episode that talked about cherishing the cabin. This was George's future in-law's cabin and in Kramer fashion he accidentally burned down the cabin. There is some truth to that phrase, I sit here this weekend at my in-law's place at Grand View Lodge. I am reminded of three things that make coming here enjoyable, family, fun and food, with faith being the bond that binds it all together. I have never been part of a group that is so closely knit together as this family is. The six younger cousins are all very close and get a long so well. My son who is four absolutely adores his 12 and 14 year old male cousins and they don't mind hanging out with the little guy. Even when my two older daughters are around they are welcomed with open arms. There is rarely any incidences among the cousins. The fun extends in many areas from taking the kids swimming or to town or finding a number of other things to do depending on the season. The fun of course always...