This week on Strive Seek Find we touch on the damage that Covid did to professional and some personal relationships and how to fix them. And later A Finish brewery shows support for Finland joining NATO in a truly appropriate fashion.
Finish Brewery
Support the show/Contact Chance
This week on Strive Seek Find we touch on the damage that Covid did to professional and some personal relationships and how to fix them. And later A Finish brewery shows support for Finland joining NATO in a truly appropriate fashion.
Finish Brewery
Support the show/Contact Chance
I'm so excited. And I just can't hide it. And I know I know. I know. Yeah, I know I shouldn't be singing. Not now. Not ever. Welcome strive seek find podcast. I'm your host, chance Whitmore. Of all the things, the last three years have made difficult. The increasing distance between colleagues is one of the things that has grown to bother me the most. And while no one who has listened to the pod would be surprised to learn that I strongly believe in the power of relationships, you might not realize how much loss I felt in the required distance in relationships. Nor might you realize exactly how guilty and that's a fairly accurate word. I am to see things headed the other direction. Now, let's get started. I'm sitting here recording this at 130 in the morning, on Monday. In other words, I've usually published by now, and a small and let me stress a small part of the reason why things are not done. As I spent a chunk of today working to smoke pork for a staff gathering this week. By the way, the pulled pork turned out in my humble opinion, of course, awesome. Once upon a time, gatherings like these were a regular event at my home, whether it was staff parties, large groups of friends, some combination thereof, you could count on 20 to 30 people at my house a few times a year at the bare minimum. For example, one from the Wayback Machine, when my family moved into our current home, about nine years ago, I was in a race against the end of the school year, as my boss at the time had volunteered me to host the end of your barbecue. Only about three weeks after I had moved in. When we moved in, there was no backyard. No sprinkler system. No back patio. Well, there was a small cement patio, not what you could have a staff of 60 hanging out on so to speak. But it came together we got it pulled off a party. Despite the fact the sod was still technically not sit on worthy. You weren't supposed to be on it with, let's say lawn chairs. So it kind of came up and make squishing sounds. It all survived that fortunately, the brisket and chicken, if I remember correctly. And as a fond memory, someone catching a staff member going through my partially unpacked closet to check out what sort of cool things we had in there. Great memories with a question tagged on to the end. Of course, all of that was before the dark times before the COVID Sorry, I couldn't resist a little Obi Wan Kenobi reference this week. And one final side note, I am really pleased with how that port turned out tonight. I finished reading it about 15 minutes ago. It's party worthy. Prior to this week's event, I think the last time was about four years ago with a totally different staff and a different school. And a different group of kids running around and playing on the swing sets. Missed it. So in my opinion, the last three years have been better at driving wedges between us than bringing us together. Now on the macro level. That's really obvious. But on the interpersonal level as well. During the COVID times, relationships, by definition, had to be more distance more protective. As we were stuck in social distancing. Locked down zoom cocktail party days, even when you were allowed back into work. You had to be distant. Only a few of you could be together. It was artificial. It was painful. It eliminated a lot of watercooler conversations, because arguing over your fantasy football team, or talking about what you're going to do this weekend over text and doing it while you're having lunch together are two completely different experiences. It pushed pause on little things like after work coffee, or beers, or breakfast doughnuts, because we had to, to keep things rolling. But like most things that are temporary necessities, they have a tendency to become habits, even when the underlying reason for those habits has, at least on the surface past, we got used to walking away from work, which in and of itself is a good thing. But we did learn to rush home. In the process, many of us started walking away from our peers. But why does that matter? I mean, after all, there's a whole lot of people out there who want to keep work and work and time away as time away, and you can't blame them. But for me, there needs to be a balance in this. Those relational moments are important not only for what they do for individuals, both individuals involved, but also what it indirectly provides the team. Because while small talk can build the foundations of a relationship that can grow and change in the trust you can build by knowing someone is critical. And those moments of knowledge with your coworkers. That foundation of trust builds bonds that allow you to get through the hard times. Because you don't just think you can lean on your colleagues, you know, you can. This, in my mind, is what we have lost or at least damaged, as we've isolated ourselves more. So get out make little small talk. Spend some time with coworker. Because eventually, we all need to lean on someone. And it might as well be someone you know and trust. Which of course brings us back to this week's gathering. The first one in what seems like forever. This group has been through so much together, it's time to have more opportunities to come together as people to strengthen the bonds forged in the dark times to carry ourselves forward into new and better heights. And I'm grateful for that. Shout outs. I'm keeping it simple. This one's a personal one. It's kind of a woohoo moment. I'm in the process of finishing up year 26 in education. Not yet mind you. There's still a few weeks left to go. Time is flown. And I'm beginning to see people surpass me and age. Because I'm not sure how these former teens are now in their 30s and early 40s. Because I tell you, I swear I'm 30 Or at least I think I am. It's been a journey. And I'm grateful for everything that has come out of it. Worth mentioning today is worth mentioning comes to us from Finland. According to Yarl Tanner's article in the Huffington Post, linked below in the show notes. Apparently a small brewery in Finland is showing support for Finland's application to join NATO by making a lager named au tan, which of course I am butchering. The name is both part of the phrase for let's have a beer in Finnish. And it's the French term for the Treaty Organization. And I'll tell you, it has a cool looking can so distributors in Idaho? Hey, get this beer into town police. It's an interesting aside and in other words, tenuous situation. Check it out. Well, my friends, that's it for this week's edition of strife seek find. If you'd like to help support the show, please suggest the podcast to your friends or leave a review on your favorite podcasting app. You'd rather show a little financial support. I'd never turned down a donation on buy me a coffee, all of which goes to purchase materials to keep the podcast moving forward. And again, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep seeking your own brilliant future