One rainy afternoon an inspired 15-year old boy named John Goddard sat down at his kitchen table in Los Angeles and wrote three words at the top of a yellow pad, "My Life List." Under that heading he wrote down 127 goals. In 1972, at the age of 47, he had completed 108 of those goals. These were not simple or easy goals. They included climbing the world's major mountains, exploring from source to mouth the longest rivers of the world, piloting the world's fastest aircraft, running a mile in five minutes and reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Of his quest Goddard says, “When I was 15 all the adults I knew seemed to complain, ‘Oh, if I’d only done this or that when I was younger.’ They had let life slip them by. I was sure that if I planned, I could have the life I wanted.”

 Goddard’s list helped him have a full life filled with adventure. But what about those folks he saw letting life slip them by? That scenario has recently played itself out in the hit movie, The Bucket List. Here a caustic and bitter corporate billionaire (Jack Nicholson) and a cultured, working class mechanic (Morgan Freeman) have nothing in common except for their terminal illnesses. While sharing a hospital room together, they decide to escape and do all the things they have ever wanted to do in the short time they have before they kick the bucket. They set out and have a rollicking good time skydiving, going on a safari, driving race cars and visiting the Pyramids. Life seems to be good. But in a telling scene the cultured mechanic pointedly asks the billionaire two soul searching questions. The first was “Have you found joy in your life?” Now you would think that for a man that built a billion dollar business, had presidents ask his advice and dined with royalty the answer would have been easily and quickly answered. But it wasn’t. And then the mechanic asked, in my view, the even tougher and more important question, “Have you brought joy to others”? You see the goals on Goddard’s “My Life List” and “The Bucket List” were for the most part designed to satisfy question one, finding joy in one’s life. Those goals are important to a full and joyful life but are only half of the equation. Missing are those with the quest of bringing joy to others which, if accomplished, exponentially bring joy to ourselves.

 Where am I going with this? I had heard about John Goddard years ago and created my own “life list”. Not surprisingly, the list is pretty much devoted to question one. And Ann Richardson and I recently got to tick off one of the major items on the list. We rafted the Colorado River through Grand Canyon with a group of friends on a self-guided trip. We were on the river for 22 days and rowed over 300 miles. And we happened to be on the river when the government conducted a “High Flow Experiment”, releasing four times the water out of Glen Canyon Dam to simulate a natural flood, giving us the privilege, if you want to call it that, of running the river’s toughest rapid at the peak of the flow. Wahoo, what a ride that was! Did we find joy in our life? You betcha. But on our return and after watching “The Bucket List” I realized that I only had half a list and before I kick the bucket I’ve got some work to do. Have I brought joy to others? Boy, I sure hope so; but I think I could consciously bring more. As I start filling out the other half of my list I need to think about bringing joy to all of the “others” in my life. The obvious ones are family, friends, and those in need in our community and the world. But I must also think of those I lead and my teammates. What have I done and can do to bring joy to them? It’s a challenging question. So here’s a start:

• Find out what team members enjoy doing outside work and create work recognition opportunities that incorporate those activities, e.g. a day at the climbing gym for a rock climber.

• Learn about people’s career aspirations and provide support to their goals

• Remove barriers and eliminate things that frustrate people in doing a good job

• Help team members maintain a healthy work/life balance 

As a leader or team member some of these goals might work for you as well. If so, feel free to use them. If you have others that you think might work for me and the readers of this newsletter please send them to me at clyde@tlcinc.com and I will publish them in the next issue.  

I encourage each of you to spend some quiet time with a yellow notepad creating your own bucket list. Don’t forget to consider both questions. Oh, and if you haven’t already seen it go rent the movie, it’s terrific!