Stress Fracture, Setbacks, and Bouncing Back (9-7-22)

Happy Wednesday,

Last week was about taking time to find stillness.  This week is about setbacks and bouncing back.

When the doctor told me I had a stress fracture I was happy to know what was going on with my leg, but I was also bummed because I knew this would be a setback for me.  had been training for some races during spring/summer that I was excited about.  Those goals were now out the window.  After that sunk in, I looked at the doctor and said, “Okay, well the fracture kind of stinks.  I want to be able to be mobile and ideally, I want to be able to get back to running and doing races.  How do I get back to that?”  At that point, he walked me through his plan to help me recover and ease my way back into running.  I agreed to his plan and followed it.  After a few months I had made nice strides in my recovery, and I recently completed my first obstacle course race since the stress fracture.  The race was a lot of fun and I and was proud of my performance.  I found a good rhythm and most importantly, had no pain throughout the event.  It was the first milestone of the comeback, and I have a few more races set up before the end of the year.  (Side note, why haven’t I quit my job yet to become a race model?  I mean, look at that pic! 😉)

What does this have to do with anything?  Whether at work or in life, we’ve all had setbacks.  What matters is what happens after we have the setbacks.  Do you get stuck where you fell, or do you find a path forward?  I do both.  Sometimes when the setback comes, I fall and get lost in that failure.  I get trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and believing it won’t get better.  I lose sight of my goals and purpose, so I struggle finding a path forward.  Do you ever feel this way?  Other times, I find a way to bounce back.  I believe the key to bouncing back is to first allow yourself to full experience the setback, because that’s where the learning comes.  Then, you must reorient yourself and refocus on your goals.  If you can do that.  If you can say, “Yeah, this setback/failure stinks, AND I still have a vision for where I want to go” then your body will find a path forward.

The challenge: How will you respond to setbacks?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Stress Fractures, MRIs, and Embracing Stillness (8-31-22)

Last week was about stress fractures and paying attention to warning signs.  We are going to build off this idea by exploring MRIs and stillness.

As I mentioned in the last entry, I had been battling shin pain for months before going to see the doctor.  He sent me to get an MRI, so he could diagnose what was going on.  You must be STILL for a MRI to work, and I am a huge fidgeter.  I muster all my focus to be as still as possible as I lay on an uncomfortable platform while being inserted into a loud and strange machine.  I sit still for what feels like forever, as the MRI takes images.  I must have been still enough, because the images were able to show the stress fracture.

What does this have to do with anything?  In order for the MRI machine to work and take quality images, I had to be still.  I was able to find stillness, despite being anxious in a loud and distracting environment.  Embracing stillness, helped diagnose the issue.  I wish I was as good at finding stillness on a consistent basis in work and life.  Instead of making time for stillness, I feel I’ve been consumed by flurries of activity for the past few months.  Some of this is unfortunate circumstances, a perfect storm of being short-staffed and having random fires pop up at work and home.  Some of this also is a result of me not searching for and making time for stillness.  Instead, I’d wake up and get to work, hoping I’d catch up.  Then after work, I’d get back to work, hoping to catch up.  (#spoilers I never caught up.  Sound familiar?)  There was always more work that needed to be done.  Since I wasn’t embracing stillness, I wasn’t slowing down to look at how the toll all of this was taking on my physically, mentally, and socially.

Fast forward to today.  I still have more work than I could ever accomplish, so that hasn’t changed. (Anyone else feel that way?)  One of the main differences is that I’m being more deliberate about embracing stillness.  While embracing stillness is not a solve for all problems, it is something I can control, and it is a consistent series of steps in the right direction.  For me, I’m doing a better job of honoring my morning routine of waking up, working out, and meditating (#Headspace) BEFORE I ever check my phone or computer.  If I check my computer or phone first, my stillness is gone for the morning.  At night, I’m being more deliberate about turning off any screens or work-related activity by a certain time, so I can wind down.  I’ve found the more consistent I am with these rituals, the better off I am.  The more I embrace stillness, the better I can understand what is going on around me and within me, so I can adjust accordingly.

The challenge:  What does embracing stillness look like for you?  How often are you embracing stillness?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Shin Splints, Stress Fractures, and Paying Attention to Signs (8-24-22)

This week we are going to start a series on lessons I’ve learned dealing with a stress fracture over the past few months.  This week is about paying attention to warning signs.

Many of you might remember that I started doing obstacle course races last year.  Originally, I had planned to do more races April through July, but that didn’t quite pan out.  Here is what happened.  I had been training hard for months.  I noticed that my shin hurt when I ran.  It was inconvenient.  I just kept running.  Soon, it went from being inconvenient to hurting.  I ignored it and just kept running.  Soon, I got to the point that my shins were hurting even when I wasn’t running, and if I did run the pain would be sharp.  I ignored all this, and just kept running.  Finally, I got to the point where my shin hurt bad enough that I saw a doctor.  I was diagnosed with a stress fracture.

Looking back, I wish I would have paid attention to my body earlier.  At the first sign of pain, I wish I would have stopped to better understand the situation, so I could have made adjustments to help me recover before it became a substantial problem.  However, I didn’t pause, so what likely started as a shin splint became a stress fracture.  What started as a minor issue, became something more intense that sidelined me from running and physical activity for 3-4 months.  Luckily for me, the leg has healed and I’m back to running and things again.

What does this have to do with anything?  How often do you keep “running” despite the pain and all the warning signs telling you that you need to stop and figure out what is going on?  Maybe the “running” is working yourself to the point of burnout and not functioning well.  Maybe the “running” is continuing to operate in a culture where there are signs that something isn’t quite working.  Maybe the “running” is continuing to press forward with the project even though there are signs that people aren’t exactly aligned.  Maybe the “running” is doing everything else on your own and not having the right support around you.  I’ve done all of these things.  Have you?  In all those situations there are initial signs that indicate that things might not be going well.  If we can pause when we first see the signs, we can often fix things before any real harm is done.  However, far too often we put our head down and keep pushing, believing that pausing is weakness.  We keep pushing, ignoring the warning lights until something finally breaks.  I know I’m guilty of this and am trying to do better.

The challenge: Will you listen to the initial warnings when they come?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

The 500th Blog- Growth and Appreciating the Journey (8-17-22)

Today is a special Wednesday for me.  This is the 500th blog entry I’ve written.  It’s about growth and appreciating the journey.

This is my 10th year of blogging. My first blog was sent on September 26, 2022.  Over the weekend, I realized that the 500th blog would be sent out today.  I started walking down memory lane and reading through my old entries, and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.  If you’d go back and read my first few entries, you’d probably chuckle too.  It just wasn’t as good as it is now.  I started the blog when I worked in training as a way to explore customer experience and our selling model.  It was so limited in scope compared to what it is now.  The writing wasn’t crisp or clear.  I was trying hard to be funny and clever and wasn’t always succeeding.  The real raw authentic vulnerability wasn’t present for the first few years.  People initially didn’t quite get what I was doing with the blog and was mainly wondering why I felt the need to do something so weird.  If you look back through the original entries, it becomes really apparent that I had no idea what I was doing.

As I looked back, on one hand I saw so many mistakes and things that now drive me nuts.  On the other, I saw so much growth and transformation. I can see how the writing is better, more focused, and more real.  I can still remember how incredibly nervous I’d get before sharing anything remotely vulnerable, like being on the border of getting sick.  Now, I’ve gained more strength and courage to make this a little easier.  Now as I look at myself I can see a writer who still doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing but does have a better grasp on who he is. 

As I look back through the years, I am also incredibly thankful for all of you who have ever read an entry or sent me a note telling me it made you smile, gave you inspiration, or felt like a warm hug.  All I want to do in life is spread a little joy, love, and light.  Thanks for giving me a chance to do that every week. (I’m not crying when I write this paragraph.  You’re crying.)

What does this have to do with anything?  Maybe you’re just starting a journey.  If you are, just know it’s okay if the journey is a little ugly, bumpy, and weird for a bit.  Experiencing all of those things, just means you are human.  Maybe, you’ve been on the journey longer.  If so, please take a second to look back.  Look back and see the mistakes.  Look back and smile when you see the growth.  Look back and see all the people you’ve touched.

The challenge: Will you appreciate the ride?  Will you appreciate your growth?

Bonus 1- Thank again for reading.

Bonus 2- I know this is totally selfish.  If you have a favorite entry, series, or topic from the blog over the past 500 entries I’d love to hear what they are.  It will fill my bucket.

Bonus 3- Here is a list of some of my favorite entries throughout the year linked to my blog site.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

The Sandman and “I am hope.” (8-10-22)

See the source imageHappy Wednesday,

This is the final entry focused on words and phrases that have inspired me.  This week the words come from The Sandman, an amazing graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman.  The Sandman follows Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, the one responsible for shaping the world of our dreams and nightmares.  It’s a mix of superheroes, mythology, horror, and wild imagination. 

One of my favorite scenes is when Morpheus is having a verbal battle with a demon, where they constantly try to one up each other.  Kids play this game, and it sounds like this.  Kid 1: “I have super strength, so I’m the best.”  Kid 2: “Well, I have super strength AND I can fly.”  Kid 1: “Then, I have super strength, can fly, and I can teleport.” And they go back and forth trying to one up each other.  Does this sound at all familiar or is this just my kids?

Anyway, in the graphic novel, Morpheus plays a similar game against a demon.  The game has escalated, and the demon goes for what he thinks is the final blow.  The demon says, “I am anti-life, the Beast of Judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds…of everything. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?”  Morpheus replies, “I am hope.”  The demon and the audience go silent.  They know that nothing can defeat hope because hope finds a way to persevere through everything.  Morpheus wins the game.

What does this have to do with anything?  I don’t know about you, but sometimes when things are going wrong it’s easy for it to start snowballing out of control.  It’s easy for the problems to stack and stack and stack until I’m so overwhelmed I can’t see anything else.  This moment from The Sandman is a perfect rebuttal to this feeling of helplessness and being overwhelmed.  It’s the simplicity and the power of the phrase, “I am hope.”  It serves as another reminder to me that even when things get tough, when the worlds feels too big, when things feel out of control, hope can always help you see a path forward and a better day.  This sentiment is enough to get me through tough times.  What about you?

The challenge: Will you remember that hope is always there?

Bonus: I wrote this entry like 1.5 or 2 years ago, and Netflix just recently turned The Sandman into a show that we released last week.  If you’d like to see the battle, I describe play out you can go to YouTube and search Dream Lord vs. Lucifer.  Fair warning: There are some adult words and violent images in the series.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry


Wifi, Signal Strength, and Meaningful Connections (8-3-22)

Last week was about rethinking impossible.  This week the words that inspired me come from a computer alert about Wi-fi and stronger connections.  I was working on my computer on my back patio, trying to get caught up on everything, when the below message popped up and struck a chord with me. 

I looked at it for a moment and my first instinct was to say, “Thanks Captain Obvious!”  My second instinct was to say, “I’m not that far away from the router.”  Then, I had a mini epiphany, which just goes to show that sometimes inspiration comes from strange places.  As I looked at the message, I started substituting words.

  • “The strength of your connection between you and the people you care about could be improved by moving closer to them.”
  • “The strength of your connection between you and yourself could be improved by moving closer to who you are.”

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything.  If I’m being entirely honest, work (and life for that matter) has been kicking by butt for the past few months.  The expectations are high, and the pressure to meet them (whether external or internal) is even higher.  It’s a flurry of early mornings, long nights, fire drills, and last-minute pivots.  It’s been sprinting and sprinting and sprinting with little rest.  Have you felt like this lately?

With all of this, I’ve felt myself getting lost in the swirl.  It is kind of like being on a boat where each wave took me further and further from shore.  Suddenly, you look up and realize how far you have drifted away, and that you need to get back.  That pop up from IT was the nudge to get back to shore.  My mini epiphany made me pause and realize that I had moved AWAY from the people/things that make me whole, and I needed to focus my energy on moving CLOSER to the people/things I care about (myself included).  After all, life is all about having meaningful connections with people and things you love.  It was just the nudge I needed to step back and refocus after a chaotic few months.  

The challenge: Who or what do you need to move closer to?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

“Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.” (7-27-22)

Happy Wednesday,

Last week was about being intentional about the weight we carry.  This week we will look at song lyrics and the idea of impossible.

Back in 2000, Kanye West was at the height of his popularity.  During this time, he released a song called “Diamonds are Forever.”  Eventually, he released a remix of that song featuring Jay-Z.  Not only does the song have an awesome beat and some great flows from Kanye and Jay-Z, but it also has lyrics that have been burned into my mind.  On the remix Jay-Z raps,

“This ain’t no tall order, this is nothing to me.

Difficult take a day, impossible takes a week.”

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything.  Think about work for a minute.  How often are you told something is impossible?  How often are we told it can’t be done?  How often do you end up believing that something is impossible?  These lines from Jay-Z are a counter to this thinking.  I love the premise that those short two lines create.  In those two short lines Jay communicates a few things.

  1. There is no such thing as impossible.
  2. It’s not a question of IF, it’s a matter of WHEN he will accomplish a great task.
  3. He has the confidence to lean into the situation.  He believes in himself.

Whenever I face a task that has been described as impossible, I often think of this song and those lines.  I remind myself it’s a matter of time, NOT a matter of possibility.  I then take a deep breath and lean in with confidence to make something amazing happen.  Imagine what would happen if we all embraced this mentality.

The challenge: How will you respond when things are “impossible”?

I stand in solidarity against injustice and in support of humanity.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

It’s only heavy if you lift it (7-20-22)

This week we are going to kick off a series about words and phrases that have struck a chord with me.  We’ll start with a story I recently heard from a Tim Ferriss podcast with Jack Kornfield.  The story is about heaviness and lifting things.

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, India, and Burma before coming back to the US to co-found the Insight Meditation Society.  During the podcast, Jack shared a story from his monk days about being on a walk with his fellow monks by a field.  As they were on their walk, one of the elder monks saw a large rock in the middle of the field and noticed the farmers all working around it.  The elder monk asked his fellow monks, “Do you think that rock is heavy?”  They responded, “Yes.  It’s huge.  It’s extremely heavy.”  The elder monk replied, “Only if you lift it.”  The monk was making the point that just because the rock was there, did NOT mean you had to engage with it.  Just because the rock was there, did NOT mean you had to move it.  It’s only heavy if you CHOOSE to take on that burden.  The farmers were working around the rock, instead of trying to lift and move it.

What does this have to do with work?  Like farming, there are thing we will need to do in order to prosper in our jobs.  However, just because we have things we must do, we do NOT have to pick up all the extra weight just because it’s lying around work.  The rock is only heavy IF you try to lift it.  I do NOT have to pick up the additional emotional baggage.  I do NOT have to pick up weight of additional stress.  I do NOT need to carry the weight of unrealistic expectations.  I can choose to leave all this extra weight where it is.  In full transparency, I’m not good at this.  This is not easy for me.  As I look at where I am now, I’m carrying weight for work, and I know I’m allowing myself to carry a bunch of additional weight that I don’t need to hold.  It’s exhausting.  I’ll have to find a way to let go of all of that.

The challenge: Will you be intentional about the weight you carry? 

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

15 Years- Encouraging Strengths in Others (7-13-22)

This will be the final entry in the series about memorable moments throughout my 15-year career.  This week is about a moment that led to other moments for me.  More specifically, it’s about encouraging strengths we see in others.

Back in my training days, I worked with a gentleman named Bill Fanelli.  He was a different cat, always looking for new ways to help people connect and lead from their humanity.  I had mentioned to Bill in a 1 on 1 that I was a writer and that I performed poetry.  One day he asked me if I’d ever be willing to do some poetry for an experience he created.  He was convinced that this approach would engage the audience and open them up to new ways of thinking.  I told him yes, because I never thought he’d actually follow through.  Then, one day he comes up to me and says, “So I have this day long training for leaders of varying levels across the company.  How would you feel about doing some poetry about leadership and building culture?”  I nervously agreed, but only because I had promised I would.  I wrote a poem that became, “Let’s Build” and I performed it for the room of leaders. Not going to lie, performing poetry in my corporate job was weird, because I never thought that side of me belonged at work.  I was wrong.  Imagine my surprise when I saw how it moved them.  Since then, I’ve been blessed with other opportunities to speak and perform for folks, which still blows my mind and fills my bucket. Beyond the poetry, Bill was one of the initial supporters of my blog and was one of the ones who encouraged me to keep writing.  You probably wouldn’t be reading this without him.

What does this have to do with anything?  It would be easy to think this story is about me performing poetry, but it’s not.  It’s a story about Bill Fanelli. It’s a story about a guy who didn’t just see poetry and blogging, but saw that I had a knack for communicating in a way that could reach people.  It’s a story about a guy who saw something in me that I didn’t particularly think to value at the time.  It’s a story about a person who saw this strength and coaxed it out of me, and then watched as it flourished and opened other doors for me.  Those doors have included speaking at other events, growing the blog, and leveraging my storytelling in marketing and market research roles.  As leaders, it is our responsibility to see the strengths inside of others.  It is our responsibility to help them see how powerful and impactful they can be. 

The challenge: Are you appreciating, bringing out, and leveraging the strengths in others?

Bonus 1: Throughout this series I explored some of memorable moments.  You might have noticed the moments weren’t ever really about me.  They were about a colleague or supervisor somehow showing that they cared for me or valued me.  Never underestimate the power you have to make a positive impact on someone.

Bonus 2: I’ve been blessed to speak/perform at a few events.  Here are two of my favorites:

  • Eli Lilly and Company: Andrew Embry Shares #WeAreLilly Poem – YouTube– The “We Are Lilly” poem.  Not going to lie, being asked by the CEO to write/perform poetry was sweet.
  • Waymakers (poem starts at 3:55 left in the video)- A poem I performed at a WILL event.  I had the opportunity to support WILL, show some love and respect for my mom, and I threw down so hard in the poem that halfway through I received mini-standing ovation and had to slow down for a second before I finished.  Best response ever!  I can still feel that energy.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

15 Years- NOT Jumping in to Save the Day (6-29-22)

Last week was about letters of intent and the power of small gestures.  This week is about a moment when a leader was strong enough to NOT jump in to save the day.

Let’s go back a few years.  I was in our marketing academy working on the the market research team for a launch brand. I had a meeting with the marketing team about the targeting project I was leading.  Have you ever had a presentation/led a meeting where things went great and you left feeling like a rockstar?  This was NOT one of those meetings.  By the end, I was limping over the finish line with bruised legs and a black eye.  It was ugly.  There were questions I wasn’t prepared for, tangents that got us lost in rabbit holes, and I just wasn’t all that effective.  Has that ever happened to you?

Anyway, I talked to my boss after the meeting and we were debriefing how it went.  She kind of chuckled and said something like, “Yeah, I saw it getting a little rocky for you, and you were getting beat up a bit.  I knew it wasn’t anything you couldn’t handle, so I didn’t jump in to save you.  It’s good to learn from those things sometimes.”  I busted out laughing and was like, “Thanks boss!” and then we finished discussing how to improve.  She was right.  I learned a lot from that not so successful interaction with folks, and I was able to apply those learnings in the future in multiple situations.

You might already see where this is going.  Whether it’s being a parent and seeing your kids in a smidge of trouble or being a supervisor and seeing your employee struggle a bit, all too often we dive in WAY TOO EARLY to save the day.  Have you done this as a parent or leader?  When we do this, we “save the day”, but we also rob the person of tremendous growth.  My boss not jumping in was the best help I could ask for.  The stakes were low, the situation uncomfortable, AND it was a great environment to learn in.  Since she didn’t jump in, I had to learn to save myself.  During the course of that botched meeting, I learned I could take a punch to the face and not die, take punches and still have the energy to throw some counter jabs, and how to dodge punches in the future 😉  These lessons helped me in that role and in future roles.  That was one moment where I discovered I had more strength, skills, and tenacity than I previously had known, but I would have never learned that if she had saved me.

The challenge: Are you a strong enough leader to let your people take their lumps and learn from them?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry