1/4/20 - 4 Questions to Start Your Monday Well

Well, can you believe it's 2021 and you guys are tuned in to Made for Mondays with Justin Lester, where we're going to continue our journey on what it means to be Made for Mondays and to give yourselves licenses to live. So today we're going to dive into a couple of questions I believe that will help frame your day, to start your day well, and then actually we're going to add something new to our podcast this year. One of the things about me that I want to share with you is I am currently venturing through and enjoying my journey through wine. And it's a hobby of mind. It's something I enjoy doing. And so every single podcast, I'm going to take a moment and review in my own language, in my own way. A bottle of wine that I've tried, a bottle of wine that I'm curious about, a bottle of wine that I've had that's actually really good to me and try to give you a little bit of information about that bottle of wine and maybe you have a chance to try it. At this point in our first episode, I am not getting paid for ads. So this isn't an ad for that wine. This is just simply some thoughts. Maybe by the end of the year we will. We'll see what happens. Or if you have a favorite bottle of wine or a favorite glass of wine that you want to share with me, I'm more than open to trying something new and engaging with something different. So welcome to Made for Mondays. Today is January 4th on your radio dial and I'm happy that you are here to jump into a brand new year so that you can be the best person that you possibly can be and can live into what it really means to be you. You, you were made for Mondays. You were made to conquer Mondays. Mondays weren't made to take over you. You were made to take over Mondays. Let's jump into our intro and then let's jump into our time together. Welcome to Made for Mondays. As you guys noticed in 2020, you might be wondering, okay, Justin, you said we weren't going to continue it. What about your other podcasts? Well, we will continue and have that. My wife and I are going to have our own podcast this year. But as we were talking, my wife really pushed me to continue Made for Mondays. And to all of you who listen, it's just great to talk to so many of you from just across the country. I had to go through a moment of really discerning whether or not we wanted to keep Made for Mondays. And was it something we wanted to continue to do? And I'm happy to continue continue this, and I pray that this is something that encourages you this year. So we will have guest speakers, we will continue to have guest people on our podcast, and we'll continue to see where this podcast goes as it takes as a life of its own. For me this year, I'm doing my very best, and a principle I want to give you is to start to separate my life a little bit. So often my life has been defined by my titles and not by who I am as an individual. And so this year, I'm venturing on a journey to really find me. When I was in college was defined by my job. I worked as a student manager and a graduate assistant at Marquette's basketball team, which was a great, wonderful experience. I met one of my best friends and Brian Hendricks and some amazing leaders along the journey. The same thing when I was at Vanderbilt and at different churches I've served at, where I've always been defined by my title and not really allowed myself to be defined by who I am. And so this year is a journey for me. And through the work that you'll hear from me as I read the things that I'm engaging with, you'll notice that with me, too. So let me give you a couple of ways to kind of engage with this year, and then I'm going to give you a couple of questions to ask yourself every single day. Beginning this year, one of the first things I want you to think about doing and challenge yourself to do is what podcasts, what books and what individuals are going to have your ear, which are going to cater how your daydreaming and your dreams are built. And by saying that there are four podcasts I enjoyed listening to in 2020. And so every single year, one of my practices is to eliminate three of those podcasts, to add three new podcasts. So I take a listen to different people that were featured or different speakers that came onto the podcast so that I can eliminate three people and add in three new podcasts. The reason in so doing is you always can go back and reference old podcasts. You can always go back and find those authors and find those leaders and find those thinkers. But this gives me an opportunity to expand my mind and expand my thinking. Anything that's not growing is dying. And I want you to take a moment this year as you begin this brand new year to really consider what podcasts are going to be different in your life, what authors, what books are going to be different in your life and what people are going to really have influence on what you think, what you feel, and what you do as individuals. We are boiling down really to those three things. Thinking, feeling, doing. What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What am I doing? How am I communicating what I'm thinking, How am I communicating what I'm feeling? And how am I showing others how to do what I'm doing? And in due season, how am I engaging with people to do the very same thing so I now can teach them how to think, teach them how to feel, and teach them what to do in the organization that you're leading. So that's kind of one of my spiels for the beginning of the year. And then also as we end a year and begin a new year, while it was nothing more than Thursday to Friday, there's something powerful about a marker in time that really says, listen, it was Thursday to Friday. Our COVID 19 pandemic is not going, has not gone anywhere. Vaccines are available in the state that I reside in, in Rhode island, but vaccines are not nationally available. We still have crazy politics going on. And on tapes that are being released this time, I don't know if it's just a locker room tape. And so we have so many things going on in our world that Thursday to Friday didn't change much unless you decide to make it meaningful. And so I want you to begin this year looking for ways to make meaningful engagements that have meaningful moments, make memories before you become one this year. This is not a year where I believe we need to be complacent. But here's what I want to warn against this year. My warning for everyone this year is be cautious against toxic optimism. I want you to watch out for the times we are toxically optimistic. I'm not saying don't be optimistic. I'm not saying don't have a positive outlook. I am not saying don't look forward to the future. What I am saying is don't let your optimism become toxic. Don't begin to worship optimism. Don't begin to worship positive thinking. Don't begin to worship it. Because God knows what we learned in 2020, even in 2019, 2018. Every single year is I don't want us to get to a place where we build an idol. We build an idol out of a vaccine, and we build an idol out of a president. We build an idol out of a politician. We build an idol out of accomplishment, and we end up missing out on living because we've created an idol right so going into this year, and those are the that. So how do we want to begin this made for Monday. I want to give you three questions to help frame your week and frame your day. Three questions to help frame your week and to frame your day. Right now, as you're driving, as you're working out, whatever it is, I want you to think about the most important projects that you need to complete this week. What are the most important projects that you need to complete this week? Right. So you know those things are important. Who are the people that you need to be connected to this week to make those projects happen? Who are the people you need to be connected to this week to make those projects happen? Your organization and the places you lead happen because of we, not because of I. We accomplish this. We do this. Whenever we get to I, then we can begin to start using they and them statements. They did this, they didn't do this, they didn't accomplish this. When it's a we culture and not an I and they culture, we cultures are successful. I and they cultures just get stuff done and sometimes not always in successful ways. Create a we culture. What are the projects you have to accomplish? This weak leader and who are the people that you're going to do it with? We did it. Not I and not they. What is the one thing you need to focus on today to make sure this day is meaningful? What is the one thing you need to focus on today to make sure this day is meaningful? What meeting are you afraid of having this week? What meeting are you afraid of having this week? Now also, what meeting are you excited to have this week? Consider when those meetings actually happen. Right? And what can you do today? What music can you play today? What art can you do today that can help you for the meeting you're not excited to go to and can help you be cautious and also with the right purpose and intentions in the meeting you're excited to go to? Think about like this. If you have a meeting on Friday that you know is going to stress you out, but you're excited about what you're doing on Saturday, why don't you prepare what you're going to do on Saturday on Wednesday and Thursday, why don't you prepare for that very thing right before your meeting you have, right? Take the time to make sure that you are even going into this week. So we don't have too many ups and downs this year. If 2020 taught us anything, it was we had a lot of ups and we had a lot of downs, and that's what led to some emotional imbalance and some emotional sicknesses all throughout this year, Right? The same thing goes with the meeting you're excited to have. Don't allow the meeting you're excited to have to get so much attention that you don't give as much attention to the meeting you're not excited to have and vice versa. So the meeting you're excited to have, how can you prepare yourself? Maybe you prepare for the meeting you're not excited to have right before the meeting you're excited to have. So you can go into these meetings even level to make sure. Remember, the health of your organization, your reputation are the ones that are always on the line in every encounter. Every encounter is an interview you're interviewing for your future. You're interviewing for your reputation and you're interviewing for where you stand in the eyes of the people you're meeting with. Right? What's one thing you can do today that'll bring you joy? What's one thing you can do today that will even recharge you for this week? Who is somebody you can reach out to this week that you know when you talk to them will encourage you? You just know when you get off the phone with them or you get off zoom with them, they're going to make you smile. Who's that person that's going to just make you laugh no matter what? And how is that person fitting into your week? How is an individual who's going to make you laugh, who's going to bring out the best in you fitting into your week? What would happen if you took time today, on this Monday, to actually reach out to that individual, to talk to them, to engage with them, to laugh with them, to schedule time on Wednesday, to schedule time on Thursday, to schedule time on your stressful days to make sure you have a space to laugh with someone who's going to recharge you, to be the person that you know you are capable of being? The future waits for no one. The future is there. It's up to those individuals who want to seize the future. And I pray that this year for you as your made for Mondays, is a year where you will seize the future. You will seize you. You will own you. You will grab ahold of who you are, what you do and how you do it as you jump into the greatest year of your life. Now, I'm not saying that as a prophetic way. I'm not saying that in some condescending or optimistic way. I'm saying that because I believe that if we live Every single day like our best days. And we live every single week like our best week. Every single week becomes our best week. Every month becomes our best month. Every month then becomes our best year. And it's very possible to have your best year. Eliminate what you need to eliminate, engage what you need to engage in. And I guarantee you this year will be a fruitful, powerful, awesome year. Now stay tuned if you want to, because we're now going to review my first wine. And those of you who are listening to our podcast, and we'll have some Marquette friends out there, those of you who listen to this podcast, we're actually going to review a Marquette related wine. And so I hope you're excited about reviewing this wine with us. Welcome back to Made for Mondays and our last segment for this, our first episode. And so today, those of you who went to Marquette University, I was blessed for Christmas with a bottle of three by Wade Blanc. It's a 2019 California white wine and I was blessed by this three by Wade bottle. And if you want to, you guys can find my secret Instagram, it's justwiningit on Instagram, where I actually take pictures of my wine journey that I'm going through right now. Maybe someday, if I able to retire early enough, I can look at becoming a sommelier just for fun. But let me tell you a little bit about white wine and about Sauvignon Blanc wine. So three by Blanc Wade is made, is made actually out in California. And out in California, it's one of the largest places where you're going to be able to grab wine in the entire world. And stories go that because of what Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley, Paso Robles and even going all the way up to Oregon and Washington, there's a lot of beautiful things that are happening in there because of just the type of the nature, the ground, the grapes that are available. And so you can get a lot of great cabs out in a lot of great cabs out in California. You can get a lot of good wines out there. Some of the major wines you see in supermarkets like the Mondavis and the really just Mondavi and Barringer and wines like that you find in Napa Valley and in California. But this particular three by way Blanc is one of the reasons I was excited about it, not only because I went to Marquette University, but also it's a black owned wine. And so that was made me also really excited. The best place to get a Sauvignon Blanc actually is in New Zealand. The best wines you'll get here in New Zealand for Sauvignon Blancs. Just the texture, the temperature, the climate and the ground, you'll get. Now for Sauvignon Blancs, it's a light wine, it's a light wine, it's a light white wine. You're going to get a lot of floral tones, you're going to get a lot of, you get a lot of grass, you can get a lime, a lot of passion fruit. It's going to be, it's going to open up your nostrils, it's going to be very lean and it's a, it's a posh type wine, if you will. It's a, it's a cute wine, it's a good wine. And I'm not a big fan of whites and that's probably evidenced in the review I have for this three Beaut Blanc. So let me be clear before I even start. I didn't know how much the bottle was. I had anticipation just because of this other bottle that I received for Christmas as well, that it was going to be as expensive as that one. So I had this expectation it was going to taste like a forty to fifty dollar bottle of wine. Um, but this three by way Blanc is a 1799 bottle and to tell you the truth, it tastes like a 1799 bottle. So Sauvignon Blanc by Wade, it's out there. So the, some of the taste you'll get on there. It's a citrus wine. This one. You have a lot of tropical to your smell. You're going to take, you're going to smell jasmine, you're going to smell some grass, you're going to smell some herbs. It's almost like walking. The way I was able to picture, it's like if you're walking in the supermarket and you smell, when the water finally stops on the fresh herbs in the supermarket, like at Whole Foods or at any of your favorite supermarkets. That's what it smelled like. It smelled like that. And you smell a little bit of vanilla and a little bit of pepper. Now I think this wine needed to be aged and that's on me. I think this wine needed to be aged for about a year or two before I drank it because it's young. It's a 2019, which probably means it was. Yeah, it's a 2019 bottle and so it's a young bottle. It had a good amount of alcohol, 12.9% alcohol. It, it's, it's acid. It's has good, it had a good amount of acid. Good about a bite when I bit it, when I drank into it. But it was very light. The wine, honestly, almost was a see through wine and, and a see through wine. So when I drank it, it was a good taste. It wasn't the most exciting Sauvignon blanc I've ever had in my life, but it's good. It's not a, it's not a good dessert wine. I ate it with cupcakes. My son wanted some cupcakes that day. So it wasn't a good dessert wine. I feel this probably could go good with some fish though. I can't eat fish, but just based upon the taste of it and the smells of fish, probably go good with some sauteed veggies. Good with some fresh broccoli. It probably would go good too. Just probably with your appetizer to open up your palate and fun. And it seems like those of you who want to have some fun, especially Marquette lovers out there, if you're looking for just a bottle to give to your friends for Christmas or birthday as a way to, you know, holler at Wade, holler at Marquette. And this is a good bottle to give to them. The word I would use to describe it honestly for me was Marquette. It was just, I'm gonna buy another one. I'm gonna get it simply because he beat Kentucky. I mean, do we beat Kentucky? I can't remember if he beat Kentucky or not. So simply because I made the final four, I'm going to get this bottle again. It's not my favorite white. It's very pale, it's hard bite. I like larger bodied whites and I'll go through some of those later this year. And so for me, out of five, I gave this a three and a half stars out of five. And it's pretty good. The only reason I buy it again is because it's a Marquette wine. And so there you go. There's your first style. So you can, you can find these. Those of you who live in larger cities, take a look and see where you can find at three by Wade. Me living in Rhode Island. The nearest store I can get it actually is in New York. And so I was happy to receive this for Christmas. And then those of you who don't live in New York, but you live in other spaces, you probably can find in a larger city. Chicago's in New Yorks and Atlantas and Los Angeles and especially in your wine countries, if you're in California, I guarantee you get it. California, Oregon, Washington and the probably the larger cities in the south. So there you go. There's my little wine spiel. There's my first one. And we're going to do 52 of these. And trust me, when you guys hear about some of the journeys, I have a red for you later this year that you can get for 16.99 that tastes like a $55 bottle. And trust me when I tell you about it, you'll want to hear all about it. All right, let's say your affirmations today. Would you repeat after me? Just say I am me. I can be me and no one will stop me from being me. Have a great day. Have a great Monday. You were made for this. Nothing can stop you from being you. Give yourself a license to live. Have a great Monday. This has been made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Be sure to follow Justin online at mrjlester and online at www.jles. see you next week. Go win. You were made for this.