Water For Peace Of Mind

Tomorrow is World Water Day. Let’s celebrate! The theme this year is Water For Peace. Why? Because sharing water resources leads to peace while hoarding water can cause the ultimate water damage – war. Apparently, water never got the memo that the world is split into nations with borders that are taken very seriously. It is a curious thing. We have erected borders to compartmentalize a natural world that – come hell or high water – won’t cooperate. How is compartmentalizing business and life impacting you?

Test The Waters

How are your career and business going? Really. Take a look. Yes, look now. Are you drowning in paperwork? Confront the un-confrontable. What’s immediately there for you? Are you whitewater rafting through work with joy or are you clinging to dear life hoping a lifeguard somewhere throws you an emergency use only safety ring? I am inviting you to rock your own boat and see what you see. Maybe then you can give up any notion of staying wet behind the ears in key areas of your life.

It can be tough out there, I know. How exactly do you keep your head above water with artificial intelligence, high interest rates, and major elections coming? Pouring fuel on the fire are floods, droughts, and heatwaves. This watered-down macro picture shows our world is in hot water. Then there are the clients struggling to raise money, unpaid invoices, a need to expand the product offering, and a deluge of apps and emails. Lastly, seems like nothing is ever water under the bridge anymore for anyone.

But test the waters for a moment. What is really going on for you? Soak in reality. Ask questions of your employees, clients, and key stakeholders. When is the last time you surveyed your clients? How much of what you are thinking is grounded in truth? How much of the challenges you face are only perceived, happening solely between your ears? Test the waters. What assumptions have changed on you?

A Hot Pot

I tried something new over the weekend – a Hot Pot dinner with friends. You grab your raw food and cook it in boiling water right in front of you at your table. You share the pot of hot water – it is compartmentalized as spicy or not. Delicious, interesting, new. As someone not prone to sharing his food, I assumed I wouldn’t like it, but it was fun. What a new dining concept and it worked!

Separated water worked for a new dining experience. But a separated life? Not so much. It is not natural for us to erect our own internal borders for our lives or to compartmentalize our society. We are one people, one planet, and one collection of resources. Thinking from there would be peaceful, wouldn’t it?

Peace of Mind

Perhaps most of the struggle is from compartmentalizing our lives. What if work and play were one? What if you were the same person everywhere? What if you embraced all of business and life’s ups and downs and didn’t refuse to accept how things are?

For World Water Day, celebrate it all. Enjoy where you are, where we are, and give yourself peace of mind. Be natural. Water for peace – of mind. Savor World Water Day tomorrow.

Here's to you and your awesome future.

Until then, keep your feet on the board and keep riding your wave!

Robert J. Khoury

CEO Agile Rainmakers