Last night, my wife (Dr. Phil) asked me a very interesting question – “When do you feel satisfied?”
The funny thing about this question is that I pose it to my clients every single day.
After drilling down in these conversations, I often find that most of my clients associate satisfaction with measurable achievements or accomplishments.
For example, some of us need to hit a sales figure each week, while others simply need to cross items off their “to-do” list.
There is nothing wrong with feeling a sense of fulfillment from these types of accomplishments. However, there is a catch.
If your satisfaction is tied exclusively to sales or check marks it is unlikely that you will ever be content because there will always be another sales target to hit or items to check off a list (Speaking of lists, this week, Dr. Phil is planning a summer vacation. A Presidential inauguration requires less planning that a week-long trip to the east coast with our family.)
Realizing this, I began to wonder, how else could I measure my satisfaction?
This past weekend provided me with a great example of a new (actually – not new – I have known this forever – it was just a great reminder) way to consider satisfaction.
We spent Friday – Sunday with my in-laws and parents at a cabin on a lake in southern Illinois. This “cabin” was a big house that had tons of fun stuff for kids which was perfect for my 6 year old son Ian and 3 year old daughter Corinne.
Unfortunately, I spent most of the weekend in bed or on a couch because of a foot infection (gout – it really stinks). What this did allow me to do was to observe the interaction between my parents, in-laws and our children.
This observation helped me to redefine “satisfaction”.
From the minute our kids woke up until they fell to bed in exhaustion, Ian and Corinne were with one of the grandparents. Their activities included reading a book (Ian loves Pokémon while Corinne likes anything having to do with a princess), playing air hockey/pool/basketball, watching sports on TV (Ian was excited that Purdue beat Illinois) or playing Chinese checkers.
It really doesn’t matter what they were doing, every activity had the following characteristics – a smiling and laughing child and grandparent.
It didn’t matter how exhausted the grandparents got (and these old people get worn-out easily), they never tired of playing with the kids.
So, I asked myself, what is more important than grandparents having fun with their grandchildren?
Would I rather have another $100k in my bank account or another weekend filled with the laughter and smiles I witnessed at the cabin?
It’s a no brainer.
The lesson I have relearned (and will probably need to relearn again in a few months) is this – Life is all about relationships with your family and friends.
That’s it.
Even though I hate being in pain, I feel blessed that a bout with gout (I just made that up on the spot) helped me to understand what satisfaction is all about.
Thanks grandma, grandpa, nena and papa.
I love you guys.
CJ McClanahan
reachmore
(317) 576-8492
www.goreachmore.com
