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Each Moment

“He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a verb in the past tense.” – James Joyce

As is our custom, the day before anyone celebrates a birthday, we send them off to bed and go to work transforming our kitchen and living room into a birthday paradise, complete with colorful streamers, banners, balloons and presents.   The birthday celebrity is greeted with this birthdayland and a day full of “your choice” picks for food, games and entertainment.  This past weekend, my wife and youngest daughter celebrated their birthday together.  Yes, that’s right, our youngest was a birthday surprise for my wife, now thirteen years ago.  It shocked us this weekend to realize we no longer have any pre-teens in our house.

Time flies so fast.  It seemed only moments ago we were holding our newborn, waking up at all hours of the night and facing what seemed like an unrelenting storm of diapers, changing tables, sweet coos, burping, snuggling and crying. I know many of you are enjoying those episodes right now.  But as some of you know, what seems like will last forever is gone in an instant.  We were given some advice early on as new parents:  Remember, babies don’t keep.  It is hard work, but enjoy that precious time.  Savor each moment and don’t rush it.  It will be gone before you know it.

That advice doesn’t just apply to babies or even those of us who are parents.  We are all on a meteoric journey through life.  Delightful moments flash like sparks across the sky.  If we are not careful, we will be watching our lives in the third person as a movie playing out in the past tense.  I often have to remind myself, don’t miss it, drink in every minute.  Every sunrise and every sunset is a gift.  Our heartbeats beacon us to listen, record and embrace the time we have.  Each chapter, each act that we perform spills from our hands into the ocean of time.  Grab hold of each moment, peer into the now and appreciate how it glistens and glows, for that moment.  The final act is coming and the curtain call will be here before we know it.  Cherish what we have now, each minute, each day.

During this pandemic, it seems like the days and weeks tend to fly by at a record clip.  I realized last week how I was letting so much slip by without a thought.  It is easy to fall into an automatic routine and not appreciate the sequence of moments that shape each day.  They tend to look the same. This week, I encourage you all to take time to focus on the moment we are in right now.  As you read this, dream into the present and let it wash over you like a soft warm blanket.  Look around you, what are you missing?  Don’t.  Take it all in and celebrate it.  Live in the first person, present tense.  We pass this way but once, don’t waste it, enjoy it!

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Perseverance Launched

Mars 2020 Perseverance

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” – Marie Curie

Back in January, my daughter and I had the amazing opportunity to visit JPL with Gene Kim and his son, to see the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover before it was crated up and shipped to Florida for launch.  We met with the software systems architect, Vu Nguyen, who talked to us about redundancy and reliability design and the incredible levels of testing required to ensure their many years of work would be successful.  I talked about our launch readiness work for SRE, but as you can imagine, JPL takes it to a whole new level.  This past week, we watched with delight as the Rover was launched from Cape Canaveral beginning its 7-month journey to the Red Planet.

Since the start of the pandemic safer-at-home initiative, it often seems like things are put on pause.  Rightly so.  Projects and plans have indeed paused, but it seems like there is even a greater sense of stasis that has set in.  It can be debilitating and anxiety provoking.  There is a sense that we are waiting to un-pause.  The recent launch of the Perseverance rover and the SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts return to Earth this weekend reminds us that things are still happening and we are still moving forward.  They may be going forward differently than before, but life and progress are still happening. 

Last week when I spoke with my staff, I posed the question:  If you knew we were not going back into the office until this time next year, what would you do different?  What changes would you make?  It turns out that many of us have been in that “pause” mode and realized if we were thinking that way, we would make some adjustments.  Specifically, many mentioned updating their home office to better accommodate work, adjust their work calendar to ensure they have time for lunch or better manage their work/life balance.  We talked about creating new ways for the teams to interact and collaborate in the virtual world.  I don’t know if or when we will return to the office, but I encourage you to think the same way.  What would you un-pause if you knew this was the new normal?  Let’s not wait for “back to normal,” let’s take proactive steps to make the “now” normal, sustainable and productive.

Our work still has a positive impact on our human family, especially during this time.  We have a role to play in delivering our magic and helping our companies continue to survive and thrive. 

This week I encourage you to keep launching your creativity, innovation, and tenacity. Like the rover’s name and the reminder from Marie Curie, keep persevering!

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Did you make your bed?

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington

I don’t know about you, but I have found that during this pandemic my to-do list keeps growing!  I seem to create and collect projects like a toddler collecting sea shells at the beach.  Every time I pick up a new one, I drop two.  Part of me says, we are going to be home and we have time, it will be good to do this now.  I add another project, fixing the leaky window upstairs, add those shelves, paint the wall, add some landscaping outside, or make some new IoT device or gadget.  The list grows.  But something that I have discovered is that while there is some reward in just knowing what is to be done, the real reward is checking it off the list.  Job done.  Accomplishment reached.  

Have you noticed how much of our life we measure and memorialize by the accomplishments we make?  Dreams are great, but it is the concrete formation of that dream that we anchor in our minds.  Accomplishments are the result and reward of work.  There is a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure in completing a task, a project, or a plan.

Did you make your bed?  My youngest daughter and I discuss the merits and futility of bed making.  She is convinced that there is no purpose in making the bed because she is going to mess it up again at night.  I help her make the bed and when we are done, I say, see how nice it looks?  Aren’t you glad you started the day with an accomplishment?  The day is going to be great.  Let’s go accomplish more things! 

The little things and the big things can all be celebrated and rewarding.  Changing the air filter on the air conditioner, launching a brand-new website, sweeping the floor, opening a new business, patching a server, completing a million-dollar cost savings job, or just making your bed are achievements that feel good, that we can acknowledge and celebrate.

What did you accomplish last week?  What targets do you have this week?  Give yourself the opportunity to complete a task, to make a difference and harvest that reward.  Celebrate the successes and the obstacles you have overcome to get there.  

I know that many of our jobs require time to complete and we may be weeks or months away from that final celebration.  But we should look for wins along the way.  There are small things that can be done every day to give us that feeling of accomplishment.  What did you check off today?  What milestone have you reached?   If nothing else, you can always start with making your bed. 

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Seeing Clearly

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic.” – John Lewis

Shortly after blogging my update last week, my wife informed me that she was unable to see out of one eye.  Everything was blurry.  As you can imagine, that immediately changed our plans for the day.  We quickly hurried off to an emergency eye doctor visit.  In the world of COVID-19 that means layers of face masks, screenings and cleanings, all of which we were grateful for.  By evening and after scores of tests, her vision was starting to get better.  We had cleared through some of the more frightful possibilities and had a better understanding of the marvelous miracle of the eye.  It is incredibly complex and can even stump intelligent eye specialists.  Thankfully, my wife is doing much better but we still don’t know the exact cause, so more visits to come.

Seeing clearly is something we can easily take for granted.  For those of us with glasses, we know the joy and excitement that happens when you get your first pair of glasses and suddenly realize all the details you were missing.  It can be an incredibly emotional experience.  Seeing and seeing clearly is one of those gifts that we often forget to appreciate.  There is so much in life that is like that.  These wonders and experiences become default settings.  Pandemic and other life pressures can cast a sour haze over our lives.  Required and important face masks and social distancing procedures have become a burden to us and discontentment rises.  We are so often wrapped up in the stream of what is going wrong, that we forget to consider and enjoy what is going right. 

What is going right in your life?  What default ability, experience or situation are you thankful for today?  As I ask myself those questions, I realize that even in the midst of emergencies and despair, there are good things to enjoy. In the middle of our struggles, there is hope. Take heart in those good things and keep up the fight.  Keep moving forward.  Cherish each step, each kindness passed to us and every opportunity we have to make a positive difference in someone else’s life.

May you all see clearly this week and be fortified with hope!

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Luminous Beings

“Luminous beings are we.” – Yoda

I love building things.  During the past several weeks my girls and I have been 3D printing all sorts of characters, figures and models. It’s amazing what you can find online or build yourself with free or online tools like Tinkercad or Meshmixer.  Recently we started printing with glow-in-the-dark filament.  In a funny way, it unlocked a new nighttime routine for us.  Before going to bed, my girls will charge up their figures by holding them next to the light to have their accompanying glow.  We observed how different lights influence the glow, with the sun and UV light being the most powerful for long term glow.  

Of course, this led to the question, so how does glow-in-the-dark work?  I love those questions!  The phosphorescence material we printed is absorbing the radiation and causing a quantum magic show where the electrons absorb the energy from the light source photons. They are jumping to a higher energy state which slowly degrades over time, emitting that glow.  The unique nature of glow-in-the-dark materials like zinc sulfide and strontium aluminate is that the energy is not released immediately.  The higher energy state causes the electrons to get “trapped” in a higher state and released over the course of several minutes and even hours. Quantum mechanics loves to do this forbidden magic.  Ok, to be fair, I lost my girls on that explanation about the same way I lost some of you… so moving on.

How are you glowing?  It is amazing to me how many metaphors surround us.  This glow-in-the-dark adventure reminded me how we as humans, often radiate what we are exposed to.  I often find that in my life that I begin to emit what I allow myself to be exposed to.  If I become fixated on negative news, I become negative.  If I spend all my time hanging around critical people, I become critical.  On the flip side, if I seek and surround myself with positive people and mentors, I become more optimistic. If I change my diet to include good news as well as bad, I find that I am more encouraged and encouraging to others.  What are you feasting on?  What light sources are you orbiting?  Who and what are you bringing into your life to help you absorb good energy so that you too can glow?

In our fast action, twitter abbreviated, news cycle world I find that I often become carried away by the currents.  This little glow-in-the-dark lesson reminded me that we have a choice on where we are going and how we shape ourselves to be the people we want to be.  This pandemic can be discouraging and rob us of energy and joy.  There are a lot of negative and depressing conversations going on.  I understand that.  But we shouldn’t limit our charging to only those sources.  Find some new light sources this week.  Look for opportunities to jump to a higher energy state this week… and glow.  Here’s to a brighter future!

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The Day – A Poem

The Day

by Jason A. Cox

The day is new. A flaming spark ignites the horizon. It arcs across the sky and warms the earth beneath. The oceans of wind crash upon the trees and grass, dancing wildly in the summer’s song. Billows of white punctuate the clear blue canopy and birds surf the invisible streams of life. Joy dances across the table, feasting upon flowers and fields of green. Onward the blaze marches until its apex erases the shadows below and floods the palace with its glory. Ebbing and flowing the wind and light shimmer, washing and painting all who live below. The day is full and the chime has come. The conductor faces the heavens and takes a bow. Slowly the shadows grow and paint the floor with cool whispers of melancholy. Deeper now the notes begin to ring as the day pulls its dark navy sheet across the sky. Memories glisten their burning specs of light in the nocturnal blanket above. Rays of the dying day stretch the shadows to their length. They gently caress the mountains and the fields. The cool tide of night rises and crashes it soft glow upon the sleepy inhabitants below. The end has come. The last glimmer bids the watcher adieu with a farewell kiss and gently folds its arms in rest.

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Pursuit of Happiness

“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“

Team,

Nothing says 4th of July like fireworks, hamburgers, watermelon… and now, Hamilton!  Ok, to be fair, we didn’t set off or watch any fireworks, but we did manage to do the rest and our neighbors were happy to rattle our windows with illegal fireworks all night long.  And if you didn’t catch Hamilton on Disney+, you should. It is an amazing performance!  It is also a good and timely reminder that this liberty stuff is a difficult and messy business.  

The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness requires work, struggle and constant vigil.  I was struck by those words this weekend, especially the well-chosen phrase, “pursuit of happiness.”  Happiness is fleeting but it is worth pursuing.  It is a constant race and requires work, energy and patience.  The reward set before us is joy, happiness, a smile and a feeling of satisfaction.  What does that pursuing happiness look like to you?  

Happiness can be found in work.  I have found that some of life’s greatest moments are at the other end of hard work and effort.  There is a great happiness that can be found in a job well done, the accomplishment and the fruit of hard labor.  It could be a project completed as a team at work, a repair job on the house, a problem solved, or a volunteer effort accomplished. In our knowledge worker world, that effort is more mental than muscular, but it is “work” none the less. The effort to solve complex problems and the mental energy to design, and create software, systems and processes is both taxing and rewarding.  The beautiful paradox is that something that can be difficult, painful and fraught with anguish, results in a moment of happiness, delight and satisfying accomplishment. 

Happiness can be found in learning.  COVID-19 has presented us with a lot of difficulty but has also graced us with new time to focus and learn.  In my spare time, I’m struggling to learn Japanese and my wife is polishing up on her Norwegian.  I also try to strategically pick projects that help me learn something new and interesting, at work and at home.  I know many of you do the same.  My recent diversion has me building IoT and other electronic devices.  This past weekend I decided I needed to finally learn JavaScript (and more than just copy paste coding) and built an interactive animation tool (don’t laugh) for my projects.  It took a lot of work, but when I had a working model (and software is never done so you just get to MVP), I was smiling.  I was happy.  I wonder if we give ourselves enough challenge to be happy?  Are we putting enough learning plans in our path to give us a chance to level up our knowledge and then enjoy the happiness of that moment?  I think I can do more.

Happiness can be found in giving.  Sure, personal rest and relaxation are good. We need to ensure we are not all work and no play.  Planned time off and vacation (remember when we used to be able to travel?) are great ways to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of our labors.  But I have found there is another key to unlocking happiness that isn’t about us.  It is about others. I have noticed that when I invest my own energy, time and resources in helping others there is an incredible joy dividend that I get back.  We are at our best when we are helping each other.  Programmed into the universe and our DNA is a virtuous reciprocity that happiness comes when we consider others, prioritize their needs above our own, champion for justice, and seek to do good.  I know I can do more of this.

Today, I challenge you all to think about how you are pursuing happiness.  What does it look like for you?  Find your path to happiness.  Look for it in your work, in your learning and in your giving, then run after it and enjoy it.  I wish you happiness this week and always!

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Change your Focus

“I have this ability to find this hidden talent in people that sometimes even they didn’t know they had.” – Berry Gordy

Routines are important.  They create structure to manage stress, get stuff done and even unleash creative potential.  In our current pandemic remote working world, routines can be a big help in creating some stability out of chaos.  At the same time, they can also drive a level of monotony that can wear on your soul. 

Last week I was on a call with a group of people who mentioned that it feels like we are living the movie, Groundhog Day.  Each day, each meeting, each event starts to feel the same.  We talked about working from different rooms or even working from outside to help mix it up.  Sadly, this monotony can extend to our relationships.  Most of our interactions are now digital (video conferencing, Slack and email).  There is a danger that we start treating only the presentation layer.  We give shallow consideration of each other to get on to the next meeting.  We may do that just to survive our meeting loads.  But that definitely doesn’t build depth in our relationships or bring the level of significance to our work that we want to enjoy.  What can we do?

I have a radical idea. I suggest we focus some of our own energy in each meeting seeking to better understand each other.  Watch, observe and take note of the unique skills you see in others.  But don’t stop there, recognize them for it.  Send them a note, speak up or appreciate them for what you see.  Learn from them.  Acknowledge them.   Our hard-wired tendency is to focus on ourselves.  Survival naturally depends on that, but it is singularly minded and will limit our experience, growth and impact.  Instead of focusing on the video conferencing camera, turn your focus to the other people on the call.  What can you do to encourage them?  What do you see in others?  Do you see some unique talent or skill that they may not even know?  If so, tell them.  We can all use encouragement.  

It may be Groundhog Day again, but I suspect if we change a little of our focus, we will see the world in a whole new light.  See what you can do this week to discover something new about your team members and others.  For those of you with partners or kids, I suggest you try the same thing at home and see what happens.  You might even spot something brilliant that even they didn’t know they had.  Imagine if the whole world did that.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

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Father’s Day Thoughts – Standing on the Shoulders of Others

“You are where you are today because you stand on somebody’s shoulders. And wherever you are heading, you cannot get there by yourself. If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders. It’s the quid pro quo of life. We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give.” —Vernon Jordan

I thought a lot about my dad this Father’s Day weekend.  He passed away five years ago in June and I still miss him.  Like all fathers, he wasn’t perfect, but the lessons he taught me have had a profound impact on my life.  I wanted to share some of those lessons with you today.

Be an engineer – Plan ahead.  I can’t remember a single project that my dad took on that didn’t have a plan fully developed before he started.  Many times, he even had written diagrams and details.  He would be frustrated when we (especially my sister and I) would act without thinking ahead. It was his fundamental philosophy. He loved seeing how efficiently he could get something done.  Apply engineering discipline to problems, projects and even PLAY.  That’s right, he would have blueprints drawn up for our vacations (ok not exactly but they were fully planned).  But it all taught me the value of engineering, being thoughtful, solving problems with design, science and planning.

Work hard – My dad was never afraid to do the hard-manual work himself, mowing lawns, repairing his car, fixing something at home or working long hours to get a job out at the office.  While not unkind he had little patience for lazy people (or his own kids). He set the example with hands-on effort, blood, sweat and tears. 

Be considerate – My dad would say “leave things better than you found them”. When you can, go above and beyond when dealing with others.  If he borrowed something he expected to return it in better shape.  Being considerate was really about the golden rule. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Don’t make others have to wait on you or clean up after you.  

Details matter – Craftsmanship and precision artistry should be in all things.  My dad would say, looking at a car, a tool, or anything else, “See how the seams line up?  Notice the precision of the gap.”  You can see and feel the quality.  If you were cleaning he would help you see if you missed a spot. Underneath?  Did you get the crevices?  Check the edges.  It taught me to have an eye for detail.

Enjoy each moment – You should savor and soak in life.  Laugh and smile.  Anytime we tried something new, my dad would provide instructions: slow down, observe, enjoy and taste all the flavor. That mindfulness approach to living life transcends all the chaos, turmoil and Coronavirus pandemic world we live in.  It reminds me to look for the good and breathe it in.  Appreciate each moment and celebrate life together.

Many of us can look back to others, our parents, grandparents, friends or mentors and think how their lessons and investments in us have made profound differences in our lives.  The foundational opportunities we were given are gifts, unmerited and incredibly powerful.  Not everyone receives the same investment or shoulders to stand on.   As Vernon Jordan eloquently put it, if we stand on the shoulders of others, we have a reciprocal responsibility to live our life so that others may stand on our shoulders.  It would be unjust for me to take what I have been given and not share it with others. 

What are you doing to help others in your family, on your team or in the world?  Don’t miss the great opportunity to pay it forward, encourage others, invest your talents, time, energy and resources in helping each other.  Plan to make a difference in someone else.   “We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give.” 

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What’s in your tea cup?

“Character is power. If you want to be powerful in the world, if you want to be strong, influential and useful, you can be so in no better way than by having a strong character.” —Booker T. Washington

I love tea.  Many of you know how much I like coffee, but you may not know how much I also enjoy tea.  I have tried many teas over the years but my current favorite is PG Tips, a popular British blend of Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan teas.  It’s interesting to me how they can all look and smell the same in the tea bag but can be so dramatically different after steeped.  You can’t know the flavor until the hot water pulls it out from the leaves.  So often in life we think we know our own character and what is core to our being, but it isn’t until the trials of life that we truly discover what is on the inside.  Like tea, our true character is revealed in the hot waters of difficulty, stress, pressure and challenges.  What we really are, what we have cultivated and nurtured on the inside spills out.  Difficulties don’t define us, but reveal the true us.   

We just crossed over the 3rd month since the start of COVID, social distancing, face masks, safer at home remote work and now economic and social justice issues. How are you doing during these difficult times?  What is spilling out of you?  What have you learned about yourself and others?  Does it make you happy or make you want to change?  These are questions I’ve been asking myself.   I must confess, I feel like I’m a bit more like Decaffeinated Lipton than PG Tips.  I am too easily frustrated and irritated at things that don’t go my way.  I don’t always listen well (my family helped me discover this).  I should be more vocal and active in supporting my fellow human brothers and sisters.  I have work to do.

As the hot waters of difficulty and change washed over my family and team, I must say, I am incredibly proud. I have seen heroic characters surface in areas I didn’t expect, compassion, generosity, optimism and leadership spill out from all areas.  I have also seen a river of creative problem-solving.

Sure, there have been moments when tempers flare and struggles with despair set in, but even in those moments we have had good conversations.  I know that we all have a list of things we have discovered about ourselves and each other.  My challenge to you today is to not let this great opportunity go to waste.  As we do with all incidents, this is a great moment to study, learn and change.  Be understanding.  Be kind but also be brave. 

What’s in your tea cup?  What would you change about yourself?  Your character spills out and becomes a powerful agent to influence the world around you. You matter.  Your character matters.  What you are inside will be revealed during difficulties.  Take this opportunity to learn about yourself and cultivate a strong character so that when it spills out it becomes a powerful and useful influence on the world.