Tag: build

Building Houses and Pacing vs Pushing Yourself (10-1-25)

This wasn’t the blog I intended to write this week, but I was driving into work on Tuesday and the universe told me this is the story that needs told.  This week is about building houses and the balance between pushing and pacing yourself.

Pretend for a minute that you build houses.  You’ve been building a house since January 1st.  It’s a large and difficult job, and you’ve been grinding day in and day out.  So far, you’ve made good progress.  Now you find out there will need to be some last-minute changes on top of the unfinished work you already have.  You know you should pace yourself, but there is so much stuff to do that you begin overly pushing yourself.  You are working hard and working long hours.  You get tired.  Your work gets a little sloppy.  At one point you’re so tired that as you are hammering nails you hit your hand and break all the bones in it.  You get the house done before the end of the year, but it’s not exactly your best work, you have broken bones, and you are spending the end of the year hoping you can heal a bit before starting the process all over again.

Let’s make some connections.  We may not be building houses, but I think it’s safe to say that we all have been running hard this year.  It’s been another year of high expectations and doing more with less.  I’ve seen all of us work and push and work and push to deliver for the people we serve.  With all that said, we are now kicking off Q4, and that is always a mad dash to the end of the year.  In the midst of this mad dash, I want us to finish strong, not broken.  I want us to finish the year and be ready for rest, not needing to heal whether that is physically or mentally.  What we build matters, AND the people who do the building matter too.

The challenge: How can ensure you are pacing yourself vs pushing yourself to the point where it becomes hazardous to your health?

Bonus challenge: If you are a leader, how are you setting up the environment so your people can deliver without harming themselves?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Legos and Building and Rebuilding Ourselves (2-15-23)

This will be the final entry in the Lego series.  We’ve looked at Legos as they relate to details/the big picture, evidence and trust, and mistakes being the beginning of something.  This week is about Lego bricks and building and rebuilding ourselves.

The picture to the right is a bin filled with Legos.  They come in all different sizes and shapes.  Some are short.  Some are long.  Some are wheels.  Some are oddly shaped.  Some are bricks.  Some are characters.  Eventually, they are all brought together to build something.  Maybe you build a robot or a car or a house or something else entirely.  The beauty in all of this is that we can use those same blocks to build and rebuild over and over again, each time building something new and unique.  You can take those exact same blocks and build masterpieces, only limited by your imagination.

What does this have to do with anything?  What if I told you that your life is just a bunch of Lego bricks.  All of the elements of who you are and all of the things you ever experienced are merely Lego bricks.  Some are beautiful.  Some are sad.  Some are joyous.  Some are painful.  Some are quirky and unexpected.  Some are calming.  All of these “bricks” live inside of you.  The beauty is that you have the ability to build and rebuild yourself over and over again.  This is the beauty of being human.  We’re not stagnant.  We are always building.  We always have the ability to rebuild ourselves and help rebuild each other.  We can create glorious messy human masterpieces, only limited by our own imaginations.  If that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is.

The challenge: What will you build with the Lego bricks of your life?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry