Top Tools We Use To Refocus Our Energy On Bringing A Vision Together
2 Aug 2022 · 10 min
Lori and Chris Harder use their lake house renovation to show why unglamorous work like yard maintenance and boat repairs aren't distractions from your vision, they're part of it. They argue that reframing these interruptions as gratitude instead of resentment keeps you focused on what you're actually building.
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Things aren't always going to go as you visualize. Things aren't always going to go as you exactly plan. But the truth is the work to create the vision, the inconveniences of putting a vision together are also part of the vision, and you better learn to embrace them.
And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.
All right, so we are up here having the greatest time ever at the lake house. And honestly, we've been getting a lot of people asking, like, oh, you know, do you love it? You glad you got it? Truth is, I can't speak for you, but I can speak for me. It's been better than I expected. What were you saying?
Saying, I don't know what I expected, but it truly has been a dream come true. Being on the water in nature, being up here with family, the breeze, the sunset, having a place for friends where, if you guys don't know, I'm karaoke obsessed. I love games. Like having somewhere that I can work really hard during the week and get so excited about the evenings and our activities and the weekends and our activities. Like, it actually makes me compress what I'm doing even more during the week, which is kind of cool.
Yeah, it's all just, like, pure summer vibes. There's nothing more summer than being on a lake for the summer, which is really kind of related to what we were going to share vulnerably with today. So the other day, I was complaining, and it's even hard to share this sometimes because my fear is people are gonna say, oh, my God, what do you have to complain about? Right?
Right.
They're gonna judge me or they're gonna say, how ungrateful are you? But the truth is, we do this show so that people can find themselves in our story. And this is our real story, good or bad. So I was complaining that I had to work a couple of long days in a row. And the reason I was complaining about it is it was my intention. Every year, I call it my summer slowdown. It's my intention to literally dial my workload back to about a 10% workload of what is normal for me for July and August. Right. So I expect to cut it by 90%. And I work real hard all year at preparing this. I front load work. I push work off to fall. I set boundaries. I do everything so that I can have about a 10% workload during my summer slowdown. Now, the vision was, oh, my God, I'm gonna be at the lake house. I'm gonna have all this freedom. I'm gonna do what I want each day. I'm gonna sleep in late if I want, work out late if I want, not have to be back anywhere for any certain call. Go hang out with my mom if I want. Like, I had the vision that was very graphically painted in my mind. The problem is reality struck. And the reality is I'm a part of a lot of really cool projects right now. I've got an incredible startup, this peer to peer lending app. You've got your startup right now, your beverage company, we have got other incredible companies that we are invested in, sit on the board with, we've got podcasts to keep up. We're involved in a lot of really cool things. And while I thought I had it positioned where I could dial my workload back to a 10% workload, my expectations were not met. And I had a couple weeks in a row where I had a couple days in a row where it was just insane. Zoom after zoom that wasn't planned. Meeting after meeting that wasn't planned. House things that weren't planned. And I said to you on our evening walk, I'm like, lori, this sucks. And again, this is where I feel like you might judge me by, like, this sucks. This is not what I signed up for.
I just want to add, like, we're also in the beginning of setting up a home. Like, we're redoing a yard. There's people coming out to help us every single day. And when I say help, that's the.
Reason I'm saying poor patios build fences.
We're so blessed to have these people even here to help us. And you were just in a moment of. I was in a mood, completely overwhelmed, which I get it. You were very, very busy.
I was in a mood. And it was because my expectation was I was going to be up here doing less. I had a vision of doing less. But you said something to me and this is where we're going with this, by the way. There's a point to this, you said to me. And it snapped me right back in place. You said, chris, it's all part of the vision. And when you said that, it got. It suddenly fell into place for me. You're right. Meeting people for fence building is part of the vision of having this big fenced in yard. Meeting people for putting sod around where they just poured a patio is part of the vision of having this beautiful patio for us to do bonfire. Like, it's all part of the vision.
And by the way, working that Broke like.
Yeah, that's right.
It's all part of the vision of the life that we want.
That's right. I forgot we screwed up the boat. Right. That broke. Except maintaining it and then getting it fixed. It's all part of the vision of being out boating. And when you said it to me, Chris, it's all part of the vision, not just the good stuff. It really was a great way to get me re, centered, refocused, grounded again on what it takes to bring the vision together. And this is why I wanted to do the episode. Things aren't always going to go as you visualize. Things aren't always going to go as you exactly plan. Things aren't always going to be as romantic as you want them to be. And boy, am I a romantic when I picture how things are going to go. But the truth is, the work to create the vision, the inconveniences of putting a vision together are also part of the vision, and you better learn to embrace them.
Yeah, I think that's the thing that we think about with the vision, is whenever we're visualizing. Right. We don't visualize the shit that comes with it. And I think that we should start actually to be like, this is the thing that I want. And also, I'm welcoming in the challenges that come with it, because the challenges are what really make the vision worthwhile. It's what makes us stronger as well. Like we were talking about with the lake house, you know, obviously there's no. I'm just going to be really real. Like, there's no door dash. Like, you're cooking your food every single night. Cooking your food means using dishes.
Cooking your food means doing dishes every day and night.
Doing dishes every night.
I'm not used to labor.
It means not watching your show that you want to watch on Netflix for that one hour at night. It means you are cleaning and you are cleaning your house and you're cleaning up your dishes and doing all of those things because we are a lake house. Like, there are not a lot of people here to help us. It's all a part of the vision. And, like, how can we drop in and know, just get really, really grateful for all of the things that this brings us and what that hard work does for us and what working from morning until night does and all of the great things that we get to do in between. And just remember, like, this is the vision that we've always wanted. We just forgot to plan in all the things that we're doing.
Part of the vision that where you work for it.
It's like an expectation hangover, but then getting really grateful for what even the hard stuff provides. The this stuff that you don't love has provided so many little magical moments of meeting people and meeting incredible humans who give you insight on their life that you're like, wow, this has completely changed how I feel or who I am or made me even more deeply grateful or maybe I could be a mentor in this person's life. Maybe I could help them. Whatever that looks like. It's really been a beautiful part of the whole thing.
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It's a great reminder and it's a metaphor for everything that you, the listener, are doing right now. Like, especially for those of you that are building businesses. Lori, I'll use yours. When you're launching a beverage company. The vision is, oh my God, it's gonna be so fun. We're gonna be around at everyone's events and we're gonna be handing out beverages and, you know, gonna be great sales. Except you forget that dealing with investors or dealing with legal licensing is part of the vision. Me building a peer to peer lending app like, this is gonna be the greatest thing ever. I can't wait. We're pairing lenders with borrowers and changing lending forever. Except I sit through endless hours of legal attorneys zoom calls, right? So that we can operate within the letter of the law. Those things are part of the vision that you forget to envision. But it doesn't mean that you abandon the vision. It means that you learn to realize it's all part of the vision and ask yourself, how could I like this? Or how could I at least attach it to the outcome that I'm seeking?
So grateful for you guys. I just want you to take a minute to think of the things that maybe you're in right now that are a part of your bigger vision that you are wishing away or you're hating on. And it's kind of like there's no good vision without that other part too that we tend to wish away. And how can we just open our arms up and say, you know what? It's all part of the vision. How do we just relax into it, know that it's part of it? It's part of it. We're all going through it. It's not isolated to you. It's everyone's. Everyone has this part of the vision.
So the next time you're frustrated and the next time you're having expectation hangover, as our friend Christine Hessler would say, just remember what Lori said to me. It's all part of the vision. Thanks for listening. We love and appreciate you, Sam.
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