Tuesday, 4:30 AM
Misery for me might be the end of the snowboarding season this past Sunday, but not this season. It’s been a long, interesting and challenging year from the no-snow-show of November to the massive storms of late March which brought four plus feet to our little valley.
The snow is finally disappearing from my yard, and I can actually see the grass in some spots. The woods and streams have finally opened up so I’ve begun my annual meditative therapy of “pick-up-sticks” to insure that my woodlot continues to maintain its well- deserved motto of ” a clean forest is a happy forest”.
About 10 years ago, I set out, chainsaw in hand, to clean up ten acres of decades of fallen trees and piles of winter debris. It was great therapy after a tough week in Boston and taught me to slow down, assess, organize and approach what looked like an impossible task methodically and as a project that could only be completed over time. Plus it was great exercise since all of the debris had to be hauled out of the woods on my tractor and carted off down the road.
Today, the woodlot is in almost perfect shape allowing light everywhere and providing quiet walking trails on hot summer days. A bit of misery in the physical challenges of the upcoming clean up and yet the joy of knowing that in a couple of weeks, once again, everything’s happy in the forest.
Misery and joy is just around the corner in this coming weekend with “the boys” showing up early Saturday to begin, and hopefully complete, “The Big Clean Weekend”. Lots of hauling, cutting, shoveling and raking, but, most importantly, a great sense of accomplishment. The misery and the joy of cleaning up after the winta’.
Spring in Vermont is always a special time. It really only lasts a very few weeks and occurs somewhere between the oozing mud of April and the first whiff of the new hay halfway through May. Hard to describe, but here in the hills, it disappears as quickly as it sneaks in. One day, there’s snow everywhere, and at the end of that same week, the leaves have popped. Speaking of which, I was in Washington last Friday on business, and for the first time I saw the cherry blossoms-an amazing spectacle of color. Nice to know that something productive comes out of Washington.
As the seasons change in Vermont, and we now move into the season of black flies and mosquitoes fueled by the rapid melting of the heavy March storms, it’s time for me to dive right into the heavy work, get busy and gain perspective on what lies ahead for customer projects for this summer as I try to balance living in the hills of Vermont and on the beach in New Hampshire with the reality of our office in Boston. Lots of commuting, but then that’s the misery and the joy of what I do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This concept of balancing hard work with enjoyment and satisfaction comes from a recent quote from Doc River, Coach of the Celtics, where he described coaching as “a miserable joy”. The misery of playing a tough game and then occasionally losing followed by the enjoyment of winning and the satisfaction of a job well done. I unfold this concept just a bit in the next column with three sales tactics that you might want to think about including in your bag of tricks this quarter.
Hopefully see you at Stratton in Vermont for one of its many summer events or on the beach in New Hampshire this summer.
In the meantime, Good Selling.
Jack
