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Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
May River: Fantasy Land for Golfers | Michael Minks
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Golf course superintendent Michael Minks takes us behind the scenes of Palmetto Bluff's May River Golf Course, a Jack Nicklaus design that opened in 2004 and provides a unique, secluded golfing experience where almost no hole can be seen from another.
• From Navy electrician on F-18 fighter jets to Ohio State turf management graduate
• May River Golf Course nicknamed "Fantasy Land" for its breathtaking beauty and secluded hole designs
• Certified by Audubon International as a wildlife and habitat conservation sanctuary
• Morning maintenance begins at 4:45am with careful planning to stay out of golfers' way
• Recent overseeding initiative extends peak playing conditions through winter months
• 30,000 pounds of seed spread across 83 acres creates vibrant winter playing conditions
• Greens maintained at 11-12 on the Stimpmeter for consistent, challenging play
• Wildlife including deer, alligators, bobcats and foxes regularly spotted throughout the course
• Superintendent's favorite hole is #16 for its spectacular morning light through oak trees and Spanish moss
• Work-life balance essential in a profession known for demanding hours
Remember to actively participate in life on your terms. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry in all your interactions this week.
Meet Michael Minks: From Navy to Turf
Speaker 1Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, jeff Ford, and I'm joined today with Michael Minks, golf course superintendent at Palmetto Bluff. Today we're going to discuss the May River Golf Course, the first golf course ever built in our beautiful community. Michael, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me so pumped to have you over here. Getting the golf pros, professionals, maintenance folks it's always an inspiring time.
Speaker 2Yeah well, busy guys hard to get a hold of, always got a busy schedule. So I'm glad I can get time to do this with you.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, thank you, michael. Before we get to our topic, which is the May River Golf Course, let's allow you to share a bit more about your background with our listeners.
Speaker 2Sure. So I grew up in Ohio. I started working on the golf courses at a young age. Absolutely loved being outside. After high school I went into the Navy where I was an electrician on F-18 fighter jets.
Speaker 1Thanks for your service. Well thank you.
Speaker 2I worked on the flight deck of aircraft carriers traveled around the world. It was a lot of fun. But once I got out of the military it was time to go to college and I just kept going back to the golf course maintenance side of things and getting a turf degree was important to me. So I went to Ohio State and been working in the business ever since then.
Speaker 1Yeah, Now college football is a big passion of yours as well.
Speaker 2Huge, huge passion, go Buckeyes. Yeah, I could watch any college football game. If it's on, I'll watch it.
Speaker 1When you were at Ohio State, did you get to all the games?
Speaker 2I didn't go to all of them, but I went to a handful. Yes, and we still do. We'll go up. You know, last year we went up for a game. Um, possibly go to the championship game here in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1Heck, yeah, so yeah, Well, as as of this recording, uh, we'll know who's the champion by the time this comes out. Very cool. So you went, uh, after the Navy, you went back to school, Ohio state, get your degree in turf management. Uh, how did your career progress from there?
Speaker 2Uh State get your degree in turf management. How did your career progress from there? I did my internship down in Jacksonville, florida, at the Ponte Vedra in a club Learned from a great superintendent down there named Jay Reister. After my internship I stayed on there for a couple of years, became an assistant superintendent and then my wife said hey, it's time to go back to Ohio. We packed up, moved home. Wife said hey, it's time to go back to Ohio. We packed up, moved home. I became a superintendent at Beachmont Country Club outside of Cleveland.
Speaker 2I was there for 15 years and then I started to get that itch about moving back to the South. I got tired of the long cold winters. So our kids were at the perfect age. So we went ahead and made that leap about four years ago and came down here to the low country.
Speaker 1And that's when you took the position here at Palmetto Bluff.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1And what a smart choice. Do you miss the cold weather or the dreary days?
Speaker 2Not at all.
Speaker 1Seems like a familiar story that we hear from a lot of folks who come this way. Tell us a little bit more about the club in Cleveland. Was it a large operation? How did your day-to-day life look there?
Speaker 2It was a private club. It was the only all-Jewish club in the state of Ohio, so it was unique in that way. Great membership, very supportive of the club. Old club Golf course was 125 years old. Wow had members that grew up in the club, that were in their 60s and 70s, that they were members with their parents as youngsters. So very old membership, been around a long time, gave us all the tools we needed to be successful. Very supportive.
Speaker 1It was a great club.
Speaker 2I'm glad I worked there, but 15 years at one club, that was a long time. I was ready to get south.
Speaker 1Time to switch it up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I definitely can understand that Now. You, as a golfer.
Speaker 2Are you a big golfer? Do you get out on the lengths a lot? Or? I don't play as much as I'd like with two teenage daughters. You know I've got a busy schedule. I'm not working. I'm trying to entertain them. But yeah, it's something I enjoy playing. I just don't play as much as I should.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, understood it, and it just takes a lot of time right there with you. Um, what do you like most work about?
Speaker 2working at Palmetto Bluff. Just the property's amazing.
Speaker 1It's nuts right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'll. I'll have friends or family come down here and I'll bring them on property and they're just blown away at the how beautiful it is. You know the large oak trees and the pines and and it's, you know, I it's. It's just absurd.
Speaker 1It's a different world Hard to describe it Like until you bring your family or friends to property.
Speaker 2I have a good friend up home. He's a superintendent, been a superintendent a long time. He came down here and he referred to Palmetto Bluff as fantasy land.
Speaker 1He's like this just isn't normal.
Speaker 2Yeah yeah, it's a special place.
Speaker 1That's a great description. We'll we'll have to use that more often.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1That'll. That'll help me in my introductions of what is Palmetto.
Speaker 2Bluff.
Speaker 1Yeah, fantasy land. As a golf course superintendent, what do you find most rewarding about your job?
Speaker 2Just being outside and producing a product that you're proud of, that the members are proud of. There's nothing better than riding around the golf course on a Friday afternoon and looking at all the week's work that you and your staff did to produce that beautiful product and just having pride in that golf course once it's set up, Going into a tournament, doing all the things you do to prep for a tournament. It's just very rewarding to me to see the final product.
May River Golf Course: A Jack Nicklaus Design
Speaker 1You guys are almost on display every single day when you think about it and in preparation for our conversation, I was just kind of actually relating it to football. You know the offensive linemen, they don't get a lot of credit, it's usually the quarterback. So in our example here, my hopefully okay analogy is like you've got the golf professionals, the directors, you know who are running the, the uh member facing experience, right, but y'all are running the member experience as well, but from the blocking side of things like making sure that course looks pristine.
Speaker 1So it's almost like you don't always have the opportunity to thank people like you for the incredible product and your team and all that effort that goes into it. So I just thought that was an interesting way of looking at how y'all are able to ensure that it looks so nice out there at May River.
Speaker 2Yeah, I've always looked at it this way. If I don't hear from the members, that's a good thing, because if they're not happy, they will let you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, and I think Chris Johnson, director of agronomy, has that same phrase that that is powerful and it is so great that our members are. Are there's as invested in this property as I? I know you are and all the teams that?
Speaker 2we have here.
Speaker 1So that's what's pretty special about this place as well. So, yeah, let's dig into our discussion on the May River, golf course. When did it open?
Speaker 2It opened in October of 2004.
Speaker 1Who was the designer?
Speaker 2Mr Jack Nicholas.
Speaker 1That's pretty epic.
Speaker 2Fellow Buckeye.
Speaker 1He was a fellow Buckeye, no way.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Now this might be out of left field. How many golf courses has Jack Nicholas been a part of designing? Do you have any idea? I don't have any.
Speaker 2It's a lot, though, right? Yeah, it's quite a few, yeah yeah Well, pretty special.
Speaker 1Do you know the story of how it all started in 2004? I know you've been here about four years. How did that whole design project go about?
Speaker 2I'm not sure about that. I know it took about two years to build. It's a signature course, so it's got Jack's name on it. What that means most times is if we want to do a renovation of some sort, they'll bring him in to get his opinion on some things.
Speaker 1So he was actually on property at one point.
Speaker 2Oh yes, okay, oh yeah, as recent as 2017. Very cool, we did a little renovation as recent as 2017. Very cool, we did a little renovation, so yeah he's had his hands in it Now in 2017, what was the renovation? They did a few things. They did some bunker work, put irrigation around the bunkers, new sand. They actually changed a few holes. 17 is a little different now. No-transcript Drainage.
Speaker 1It's a classic conversation that you guys are having right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I had a member at my last club ask me if we gave you a million dollars to do whatever you wanted to the golf course what would it be? I said I would put drainage in. And he was blown away by that response. Yeah.
Speaker 1And drainage from what I gathered with my time with Adam. It's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1It takes a lot of planning. Could you add to just the process of making sure drainage is correct and accurate?
Speaker 2on a golf course. Well, it's all about slope. Obviously, water flows downhill, so you've got to get your elevations right. Drainage is one of those things. That's underground Members don't see it, so they're. Drainage is one of those things it's underground members don't see it. So they they're like what, why do we need it, you know? So you got to kind of educate them, explain to them why it's important, and then it's got to be installed properly for it to work.
Speaker 1Yeah, I hearing you explain it in that context. It's it's almost like we all want to spend our you know extra money on a nice patio in our backyards, but then you get hit with that roof bill.
Speaker 2Sure. And we're always like why do we?
Speaker 1need to spend millions of dollars on a roof Right, Because it's just not one of those things you necessarily utilize or can show off if you will. Sure, so with the course. What's the acreage? Like yardage Give listeners who are unfamiliar with May river golf course?
Speaker 2uh, the layout uh, we have roughly 87 acres of maintained turf on the golf course uh, the. The total course is, I believe is roughly 130, 130, 140 acres, uh, but a lot of that's native areas, uh, but it's it's 87 acres of maintained turf and when you say native areas, can you describe what that means?
Speaker 2Basically it's areas that we don't really touch, kind of overgrown areas. A lot of those areas are going from one hole to the next. You leave one hole, you drive into the woods and out of the woods you come and up here is the next hole. So a lot of that is just the wooded areas that we don't mess with too much.
The Art of Golf Course Maintenance
Speaker 1Yeah, okay, yeah, okay, excellent. So from my knowledge of May River Golf Course, which is limited, it's been described as majestic and serene. Can you tell listeners, from your perspective, more about what makes May River so special?
Speaker 2Well, aside from it being a jack nicholas design, it's just each hole is its own design. You know, like I just mentioned, you'll you'll leave one hole and you drive through the woods and the next hole will appear. There there's no holes, with the exception of 9 and 18 that you can see from another hole oh that, and that's much different than crossroads, totally, totally, totally different, you can see across crossroads here You're not. You know everywhere you look, it's trees around you. Yeah so that makes it unique.
Speaker 1Is that um very different than uh previous courses that you've been a part of?
Speaker 2Uh, totally.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, the club I was at before was just basically a big square and you can drive directly across the golf course and hit seven or eight holes. Yeah, here it's difficult to navigate throughout the golf course, especially when there's golfers out there. You're cutting through trees and across bridges and it's just very difficult to navigate.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah. Front nine versus back nine, any differences in the landscape or how members view or even play those holes?
Speaker 2To me. Yeah, I feel there's a difference. You know you've got the water holes more on the back, although six and seven's on the water. You really see the water on 10 and 14.
Speaker 1What waterway is the back nine built the.
Speaker 2May River, the May River, it is. Well, that would make sense. Yeah, you know, something that's typical with a Jack Nicklaus design is his front nine will go clockwise, his back nine will go counterclockwise.
Speaker 1Interesting and that's just kind of one of his calling cards for design.
Speaker 2Yes, that's one of his. That and bunkers in the middle of fairway is another calling card of Jack Nicklaus.
Speaker 1Would you say that May River reverse a heavily bunkered course?
Speaker 2Yes, yeah absolutely, if you're, if you're not a straight ball striker, you can. You can be in a lot of, a lot of sand out there, yeah.
Speaker 1And, as I understand it, a lot of the greens are guarded by bunkers. I've played may river a few times and it is very difficult. There's a couple of holes that come to mind where I'm like wow, this isn't going to be a fun journey. Um, but it tests, test golfers nerves a lot. Could you speak to?
Speaker 2that Sure. Yeah, you gotta be a good iron player to uh, to come into these greens. Uh, they're perched up a little bit. Uh, if you're offline just the slightest, you know, the ball might roll off down into one of these swales. So it can be difficult difficult on that standpoint. But it's also rewarding because you can. You can easily bump a ball and run a ball up and approach Uh, there's not a lot of stuff in your way in front of the green Uh, so it you know it's. It's rewarding to the average golfer as well.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, so within 60-yard shots tend to be a little bit easier. Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 2Yes, you can easily run a ball up.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that's great for golfers when we're not able to play a lot.
Speaker 2Yeah now getting it to stay on the green is a different story. They roll pretty fast right? Yeah, we try to keep them 11, 12, somewhere on the stent meter.
Speaker 1Now I didn't get into this with Adam. Could you elaborate on speeds of greens and that rating system that you just mentioned?
Speaker 2Sure, so on tour they try to be around 13 on the stent meter. If we're around 11 or 12, we're happy with that. But the big thing is, you want consistency. You want hole one to roll the same as hole eight and eight the same as 10. You know, uh, if you're inconsistent inconsistent on these greens, uh, that can be frustrating as a golfer yeah, that doesn't lead to a fun experience, I would imagine.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it's almost like with the jack nicholas design every hole is different, but the green speed and the quality of them are not changing.
Speaker 2Yeah, so our goal is consistent.
Speaker 1Yeah, now just so I have the scale correctly 11 and 12,. Does that mean slower than 13?
Speaker 2Yes, slightly.
Speaker 1Slightly slower, but they're still pretty dang fast.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's pretty quick.
Speaker 1It's moving, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2Especially with the undulations we have out here. Someone will ask me what's the best way to approach these greens, and I'll tell them don't be above the hole. You want to be below the hole.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, when you get going downhill on these greens, they can be pretty slippery.
Speaker 1Yeah, putting downhill is never fun. Yeah, I mean, I've never been like, oh, let me put the ball here so I can put down now, very cool. Well, may river definitely is challenging, but it's great to hear that from your perspective, team's perspective, um very still playable and um applicable for those who are maybe less experienced golfers, and I would say that just from my perspective, I've seen our membership tends to be more out there for enjoyment, maybe a little less competitive. We, of course, have tons of competitive members between pickleball, golf, you name it, um, but I'm sure that's nice for this community to have a a couple of courses now, um, that uh can be tailored to all levels. Uh. So, challenges, getting more specific with you in the team, maybe, before we get into the exact challenges that may river provides, walk us through, like, what's, what's the daily routines of a golf course superintendent and your team.
Speaker 2Sure, so I I normally arriving around 4.45 in the morning. My assistants are shortly behind me. We'll meet around five and we'll kind of discuss the day's schedule, what we want to do, what's the weather for the day, and then at 5.30, we'll have our morning lineup with our crew. We'll send them out for our our morning assignments. Uh, we'll get that done. Uh, take lunch and then have our, our second lineup of the, you know, the afternoon at 12, and we'll go out and work until the afternoon. Uh, shift is done.
Speaker 1Now with golfers on the course, obviously by that time after 12,. What do you and the team focus on in the afternoon hours?
Wildlife Conservation and Audubon Certification
Speaker 2It depends on the time of the year. Uh, if it's summertime we're normally dragging hoses, watering, cooling the grass down, um. But we do a lot of work on the outskirts and the native areas cart paths, uh, lots of pruning palmettoes, things like that. You know, we, we stay out of the way of the golfers the best we can. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah Well, every time I've been out there, I literally have not seen any of you.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Like from the perspective of like you are discreet with, with uh, taking care of the course? Um, of course I'm probably out there four or five o'clock in the afternoon a lot of times too. Um, something unique that I heard about may river is that it's a certified Audubon in it's certified by the Audubon international as a cooperative sanctuary for wildlife and habitat management, environmental planning, outreach and education. What does that mean?
Speaker 2So basically, it's a commitment to being stewards of the land. We're going to protect the wildlife, protect the trees, all the native plants out there. We do that through water conservation, chemical use reduction, just everything we can do to preserve the land. Leave it the way we found it, protect the riverbanks. We have a buffer zone on the riverbanks that we don't touch, zone on the riverbanks that we don't touch. You know, you'll see lots of wildlife out there the deer, the gators, the snakes, the coyotes, they're everywhere. Yeah, bobcat fox, I mean, you name it, it's out there.
Speaker 1Have you or the team ever had any close encounters?
Speaker 2You see them all the time. All the time. Yeah, you see them all the time. Jay and his team at the Conservancy does a great job. You know, right around the course you'll see birdhouses everywhere. They're constantly coming in and doing an inventory of what's inside those and you know just the amount of wildlife out there is just absurd. Yeah, it's everywhere, especially this time of year, the deer, I mean, they're running in herds of 10 to 15. Yeah, and every hole you see them.
Speaker 1And that's just not typical for most golf courses.
Speaker 2Sure.
Speaker 1And I bet this influences like your planning and your operations a bit. Is there like an ongoing conversation about certain areas that need to be better protected than others?
Speaker 2Yeah, obviously anything near the river. We're very cognizant of what we do around those areas, um, but for the most part it doesn't really affect what we're doing. Uh, we ask ourselves, you know, is, is this the right thing to be doing at this time? And you know, if the answer is yes, we go with it. But, uh, you know, really protecting that river bank is important.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, wow. Well, it's cool to hear more about that, because I had no concept of how far-reaching our conservancy team was on this property and it's basically any acreage. There's a play of conservation there, for sure, and the way you put it being stewards of the land so something that's rather recent to May river golf course I think it's been the last couple of years is overseeding uh. Would love for you to add uh more detail to that process and how you feel it's been going.
Speaker 2Uh, it's been a home run, I feel. Um, in years, years past, our peak playing conditions were basically April through October and by overseeding we've kind of extended that window through the winter. A lot of members they go north for the summer so they're not here to see the golf course green. So now they're seeing it green for the first time because of the overseed. It's been a huge success. Every member I come across tells me how much they like it.
Overseeding: Extending Peak Playing Conditions
Speaker 2I haven't had anyone say they don't like it. It was a fun process. We get started the day after cane break. The golf course will close at noon on Sunday and then we'll start slinging seed.
Speaker 1This year we put 30 000 pounds of seed out dang and you hit all airs, fairways, greens, even like the rough airs, we don't do. The greens don't do. The greens is the only spot yeah but even in the rough yes you'll seed that up so it stays green.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's 350 pounds to the acre. What?
Speaker 1yeah, and then we're talking 80 plus acres 87 acres yeah, wow 80, 83, because you're not doing. The greens understood how long does that process take. Take y'all now. I'm sure in the beginning maybe it took a little more time, but how long is it averaging?
Speaker 2getting the seed out? Uh, it was a day and a half uh, oh and then, and then you, then you let it sit, you don't? Mow you know, the fairways grow, they'll get to be like an inch long. And then you know, I think this year we mowed on day 14, mowed fairways wait that?
Speaker 1you wait that long, yeah, and that's just to let it grow in. It's kind of like if a haircut, if you, you know, cut it too quickly, it doesn't look as good yeah, you want, you want, you want to give that seed a chance to germinate and establish itself. Understood.
Speaker 2And we're getting ready to go through what's called the tillering process. Oh so when you, when you, when you thought it seed out, you get one strand of grass. One grass blade comes out of that seed and then after a couple of months, that one turns into four or five, Once that one turns into four or five, so it replicates thickens up.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2More playable. And we're, we're almost to that point right now.
Speaker 1Now with grass and playability. This. This might be rudimentary thinking, but when you, when you're explaining it's, it's growing into more and more stems, if you will. We don't want the ball to like hit somewhere and just like sink down necessarily, like we want to want to have a better lie is. Is that the intention of making sure it grows in?
Speaker 2Yeah, sure, I mean you, you obviously you want to. You want to give the best playing conditions possible. So, uh, you know, with the overseed that allows that in the winter times in the past, you know, the grass was dormant. It might be getting a little thin because of the cloudy, cool days.
Speaker 1It's just giving it a more vibrant look throughout the winter and it's very cool to hear more about that process, just because I know it's been so recent. So I asked Adam this and I was interested How's your lawn look at home, since you are a turf?
Speaker 2expert. I take a lot of pride in my lawn at home.
Speaker 1Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2It's one of the nicer in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1Love it and I'm proud of that. And do people know that you're in the field of working on lawns?
Speaker 2Yeah, my neighbors do, yes, and they're constantly bending my ear.
Speaker 1Oh, I bet. Oh man, let's go ahead and switch gears. Now Back to May River. What is your favorite hole?
Speaker 2My favorite hole I might shock some of your listeners would be number 16. And the reason for that is because in the morning, you know, the sun comes up from behind the green and it's just got some of the most beautiful shadows.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2The sun's coming through those Oaks bouncing off that Spanish moss is just a very surreal hole. At like eight in the morning, yeah, but by the time the golfers get there, sun's up in the air, they don't really see those beautiful shadows. So to me personally, hole 16, I think is is a beautiful hole.
Speaker 1Yeah, I can imagine you and your team's perspective is different because of the time of day that you're, you're seeing these holes.
Speaker 2Absolutely.
Speaker 1One and two are probably not the your most favorite, because you're. It's always dark, right yeah?
Speaker 2exactly yeah, Everything we do on that on hole one you can barely see. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, but you got got the lights on. You're crushing through it. Okay, let's, uh, let's go on the flip side. What would be your least favorite hole at may river golf course?
Speaker 2uh, least favorite would probably be hole seven. Uh, that might be a lot of people's favorite hole, uh, but playing the hole is difficult to me. I've never really liked playing it, so I'm going to say it's my least favorite. How does it set up? More difficult for you. It's just a simple shot over the water and then a wedge into the green, but the green's surrounded by the marsh and it's just a very difficult hole to play, unless you're a good ball striker, which I am not.
Favorite Holes and Work-Life Balance
Speaker 1That water gets in your head too huh, it does yes, ball striker, which I am not, that water gets in your head too. Huh, it does. Okay, Well, I like that. You took the opposite of probably what quite a few of our listeners out there would have taken. I've very much enjoyed our time together, michael, and I'd love to just wrap up with our final question that we ask on every single episode of Behind the Bluff what does wellness mean to you?
Speaker 2Wellness to me is just having a work-life balance. You know we put in a lot of hours in this profession and it's important to take the time to be with family, do things. You know I've got two daughters. You know just doing whatever I can to include them in everything we do. So work-life balance is important to me. A lot of superintendents are not like that, but to me I've made it a point to be important to me.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, they're for your family. You kind of said it better. Important to me, yeah, yeah, they're for your family. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. Um, well, before we uh switch gears into our healthy momentum for today, uh, michael, just want to say thank you to you, adam, uh Chris, all on the entire golf maintenance team. You guys are a big reason why this uh property looks so beautiful and, of course, the courses play so good.
Speaker 2Well, thank you for having me?
Healthy Momentum: Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak
Speaker 1Yeah, very welcome. Uh, listeners, you can hang out with me for the next few minutes and get your dose of motivation for the rest of your week. It's easier to respond quickly, speak fast and get angry right away, wouldn't you agree? It's human nature. But let me ask you this when was the last time that you exhibited anger and you were proud of it? It so often seems that our gut judgments and thoughts they trick us into inaccurate reactions. Thoughts, they trick us into inaccurate reactions. You see, as a passionate and animated guy, I often find myself formulating responses to people even before actively listening to them, the key word being actively. This so often happens when I'm excited about the topic or I have an idea to share that I just want to get it out of my head, because I'm already galvanizing it in my brain of why it's so good, and I want to tell the person and this is all happening before letting the other person finish. Have you ever been there For our spiritual listeners out there?
Speaker 1You may remember the historical phrase be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Why? Well, let me share three reasons. First, every single person you interact with deserves your understanding of their perspective. You can't understand someone if you don't carefully listen. And secondly, when we pause before speaking, it helps us choose the words that we actually want to say. We go through an analysis in this pause where we can ask is the response constructive? And, most importantly, is the response considerate? And, most importantly, is the response considerate? Words are powerful and, despite the old adage that sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me, words do cause harm and misunderstandings. And third of all, when we think of being slow to anger, two words should come to mind Patience and self-control. And what's so important about patience and self-control is that both of these things are a sign of your character. Let me give you a brief story to highlight this third point.
Speaker 1When my daughter Mia was young, I took her home to see my folks just her and I. We hopped on a plane and traveled up to Portland Maine. Traveled up to Portland Maine. She had to have been barely two years old and let's just say she wasn't digging the plane ride. I had a bag full of distractions toys, stuffies, you name it and the entire plane ride I was going through everything. Snacks, it was all coming out, and I can tell you that it was a difficult plane ride. I was doing everything in my power to keep her entertained and I remember I gave her a blue marker at the tail end of my attempts and she had the opportunity to color my entire left arm blue. It worked. It was funny.
Speaker 1When we were getting up from the two hour or so plane ride, the lady who was sitting next to me. She said you are so patient with her. And in my mind I had two thoughts. First, that was the kindest remark I've ever heard from a stranger and second, trust me, I'm not that patient all the time. And this is what's remarkable about life it's so much better when we are calm, cool and collected. So for this week and beyond, let's build momentum in our interactions with others. Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Simple to say, difficult to do. That is a wrap on this week's episode. We hope that you have a great rest of your week and remember to actively participate in life on your terms. Thanks everyone, thank you.
