Riding the “You” Horse

One of the most fulfilling accomplishments one can make in his or her lifetime is mastering how to ride the “you” horse. So here is how it goes. I was born riding the “Mel” horse. From an infant to a senior citizen, I will live my entire life riding the “Mel” horse. I can get better at it, get worse at it, fall off and get back on… but I cannot change horses. This is my horse my entire time here on this earth. Everywhere I go and everything I do is uniquely packaged as me. As I learn, grow and mature, I am mastering how to ride the “Mel” horse.

The same is true for you. Your trajectory of effectiveness as a spouse, parent, leader, follower, philanthropist, servant, friend, co-worker, etc. is directly tied to your ability to ride the “you” horse. We are unique persons, with unique, one-of-a-kind gifts and challenges, and learning to master riding our unique self is an amazingly opportunistic best practice. We own the soul God gave us.

Your trajectory of effectiveness as a soul is directly tied to your ability to ride the “you” horse.

We are not born with an owner’s manual. But we do have The Bible – God’s Word. A bond with our creator.

Many times our gifts come with equally as powerful downfalls. Have you ever noticed that? What makes us great and unique will, many times, come with some warts too. This is the epicenter of learning to ride the “you” horse.

From an infant to a senior citizen, I will live my entire life riding the “Mel” horse. I can get better at it, get worse at it, fall off and get back on… but I cannot change horses. This is my horse my entire time here on this earth.

The very core of seeking best practice in life is first seeking best practice from oneself. How can I be the best “me” I can possibly be? How can my gifts and talents be so well led by myself that I can have the most fine tuned positive impact on my business whilst minimizing as much as possible the worst of myself? This is mastering riding the “you” horse! This is deep stuff. It is also exceedingly powerful.

In essence best practice is simply removing the self-inflicted slope and difficulty of our hike together. We seek efficient and smart ways to do everything, because it removes the impedance and resistance to our efforts. We do not tackle ourselves at the goal-line.

So how does mastering the “you” horse impact best practice? It is literally the most powerful part of it. As executives working together on the leadership team, we want to lead, manage and hold our enterprise accountable in an efficient, awesome, and very effective way. Best practice starts within us as we learn to master ourselves and maximize our own effectiveness, and then it proliferates outward and can be shared with others.

How can I be the best “me” I can possibly be? How can my gifts and talents be so well led by myself that I can have the most fine tuned positive impact on my business whilst minimizing as much as possible the worst of myself? This is mastering riding the “you” horse!

Being the best you is a choice, every day.

Talk to God and read your bible every day. He is the creator.

As a best practice we seek to assemble teams capable of unity and synergy, but we will start with diversity and learn to row together to do great things. As we all get to know each other, we begin to see the unique gifts each has. We can appreciate the positives and negatives of you being you, and me being me.

The most powerful way to ride the you horse is to connect to our creator, and resemble Him. We can avoid and deny God every day of our lives, only to meet Him at our last breath. Why do that? Ride your God Given You Horse all the way to heaven.

Being your worst self is not an option in best practice. You suck otherwise. And who wants to suck?

Your direct reports, spouse, children, friends and family deserve the best “you.” As top executives we want to proliferate smart and efficient ways of succeeding together.

We want to pick function over dysfunction. We want to spread planning and focus over panic and knee jerk.

Get your bible and read it every day.

If you polished up and mastered two or three things, what would they be? If you were watching yourself being yourself at work in a movie, what would you want to improve? How do you feel it would positively impact your team if you really became your very best self, ever?

Here is to each of us becoming the master rider of our respective “me” horses! What if you could do this for everyone in your family! Cheers!