Life has been pretty tough lately. I’m finding I’ve had no time for things I really need to make time for. I run a company, handle every facet of my dads affairs, including his loony girlfriend, and I have a long commute every day before getting home often times after my kids are in bed. I’m not complaining… I could be in Iraq.

As life gets me down, I try to find purpose in everything I do, especially if it takes a significant amount of time from my life. I have often asked myself why I run my own company when instead, I could be working for the man, getting off at 6pm and forgetting about everything until I arrive the next morning. I reasoned today that the answer is because I want to have a bright future and the closer I am to a position where I can directly affect it, the better. It takes a lot of extra effort, and time, but being an optimist, I still have some in me.

As this economy gets you down (and I’m speaking here towards other business owners and entrepreneurs) you have to be real about what is what. We are either engaged or disengaged in the things we do. To be engaged, we must see meaning and purpose in our daily work. When we are truly engaged, big things happen.

In the current economy, when there is not a lot of meaningful work to go around, then we become disengaged. We are now tasked to bring more meaning to our work.

At my company, we refine processes, pay closer attention to what ails the customer, revisit forgotten tasks, fix legacy problems and invent. Yes, invent! We think about ways to make our standard processes better and faster. We did this in 2001, so why wouldn’t we do it now? We sturdy our foundations, and position ourselves for that sudden launch. All this with the optimism that when the days get brighter, the cream rises to the top.

Now as a business owner, it’s easier to see this vision, and that’s what keeps me going. But how do you get your small team to rally behind the vision? After all, the company is the sum of all its parts. Most of the answer, I think, is to help your team visualize their position in your organization. Show them where they can go from where they are now? Make clear what our goals as a company are. Doing this will enable them to see how they will achieve their own dreams and goals [what matters to them]. When they find the true purpose in their daily work, it will help them connect to the same vision you have.

Maybe it’s theory… but consider this. If I myself do not see the meaning in a task, then why would I expect anyone else to? A health and fitness guru doesn’t go through the motions for fun, they do it to see results and the thrill of controlling those results. If I took a job as a janitor, I may work diligently and be happy for a stint, but after a while, I’m bound to ask myself, “where do I go from here?” Would I really ask myself each day, “what could I do today to help move the company closer to its goals?” There’s no chance if there is no purpose or vision. It is our challenge as a leader to get our team asking themselves, “what can I do today to advance the company vision,” or “what can I do today to make myself a better person?” Should the janitor expect to advance to a more senior janitorial position? The more likely scenario is that he’ll take a similar job for better pay elsewhere. For many, like myself, we need to be able to visualize our next step upwards.

This is my Tuesday contribution to society. It’s a dump of experiences from the day that came to a pointed culmination during my commute home. Happy holidays, and may all our futures be bright, and meaningful.

There’s already been so many comparisons and attempts to put our federal spending into perspective that I found no harm in contributing one more. The point here was not necessarily to complain about our spending… but to illustrate a very interesting point.

I was recently looking through some amazing pictures taken by the Hubble, Hubble’s Greatest Hits and, how can you not be amazed by, galaxies, stars and the thought of never-ending space?

Remember when we would read in texts about galaxies containing 100’s of billions of stars and other quantities that you could never conceive, let alone try to count to?

It then occurred to me that our country has already spent more dollars than the number of stars in the M74 galaxy above. Hmmm… only about a hundred billion stars? That’s tittly winks! I mean, this either suggests that space is small and manageable or our spending is completely out of control. Can this be true? Numbers we’ve never thought about growing up are now numbers we hear on a daily basis and need to understand how to manage.

What does this mean to us… to our children? I love life, and my country and I appreciate the small things I have and the little gifts life gives to me every day. Are these things going to be around much longer? Can I expect to stick my head out the door tomorrow and breathe clean, safe air?

When I break things down like this, I just wonder. Could you ever have imagined a higher number than one that quantifies the number of stars in a galaxy? Just some rhetoric to get your thoughts flowing, maybe to help keep what means the most to you in perspective, or perhaps just my opportunity to squeak out a rant or two. Have a great weekend!

Jury duty… our civic duty. Something that each of us are supposed to do at least one time in our life. Maybe you’ve been called for it, maybe you’ve done it… maybe you’ve done it more than once?

Well, I’m only 36 and I’ve been called four times now. It’s getting old being a whiner. Is that what I sound like? I know my obligation to this country is still lingering over my head since I’ve talked my way out of it each of the previous times. But, for good reason, in my opinion. Everyone knows I’m P.O.A. for my dad and if I’m not running across country to and from work, or busting late hours at the office, I’m trying to get a second to be a dad, and a decent husband.

Apparently my letters of woe have been taken seriously, because they just throw my name back into the hat to be called again… and the cycle repeats.

They tell you to bring a book, there will lots of waiting, and you will likely be presiding over something intensely wild, like traffic or seat belt offenders. It pains me to think that I could spend a week, or 3 days, or even a day of my life for $10 bucks an hour and worse, more time that I don’t have to spare. Kids need fed, bills need paid and ailing dad needs assistance, family wants attention, feeling guilty not being there. Life is cruel sometimes. But, maybe these are the tests that if we pass, we’re really are a man worthy of God’s countenance upon us.

I think our system is broken, in many ways, but I’ll keep it to one thought. If you can afford a lawyer dream team, it all comes down to knowing the granules of the law and having a set of people who want to save your ass, i.e. money. The jurors in there typically don’t know the law enough, myself included I’ll admit, to possibly offer any intelligence on evidence evaluation, proper ethics associated with the field, the list goes on. Others, arguably couldn’t pass a 5th grade civics test. But, most of us with a shred of brain, feel that an offender who beats an officer’s head in, or a son that wipes out his family, should be put away for a long time. Again, enter the dream team.

I know it sounds like I’m making excuses, but… I *really* am not interested. Ashamed, maybe a little.