Don't Miss the View: How to Appreciate Where You Are While Pursuing What's Next

Most people don't miss the view because it isn't there. They miss it because they're moving too fast to notice it. In this episode, Zach explores why coaches, leaders, and high performers need more "lookout points" in their lives, intentional moments to pause, reflect, and gain perspective amidst the demands of work and leadership. If you've been feeling stuck in constant pursuit, overwhelmed by what's ahead, or simply moving too fast to enjoy the journey, this episode offers a practical reminder to slow down and take in the view.

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Transcript

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When I was growing up, my family would occasionally take these road trips along the Oregon Coast, or we would drive stretches of the Pacific Coast Highway up in Northern California. And one thing I remember from those trips is that we would occasionally stop at one of the lookout points along the way. Now, as a kid, I was not a huge fan at all. These were like some of my least favorite parts of the drive. We pull over, walk to the edge, look at the view for a few minutes, and then I think, okay, we're done. Like, can we just keep moving? Can we keep going? And what I remember most though is that on the drive home, we rarely, if ever, stopped at one of these points. The goal was no longer to actually stop and enjoy the scenery. The goal was to get home as quickly as we could. And lately I've been wondering if a lot of us are living our lives in kind of a similar way. So today on the podcast, we're going to discuss the importance of creating lookout points, moments that allow us to pause, gain perspective, appreciate where we are, and reconnect with what matters before we just rush off to our next destination. Hey coaches and leaders, I got a quick question for you. You spend a lot of time building game plans for those you lead, but when was the last time you built one for yourself? If you're looking to sharpen your leadership skills, strengthen your team culture, or find better ways to support and challenge your athletes in the mental game, I'd love to help. I'm offering a free coaching call where we can talk through your current challenges and create a simple game plan for what might move the needle most for you, your players, and your program. Most coaches I know obsess over developing their team, but they neglect the person in the mirror. This call is a chance to invest in you because a better you is going to produce a better them. And if that sounds helpful, you can grab a time at Callendly.com slash Zach Brandon. That's Callendly.com slash Zach Brandon, or just check the link in the show notes. I'd love to connect and explore how I can best support you. Now one of the things that I've noticed over the years is that life has a way of continuously keeping us moving forward. There's always a new task, there's always another practice, a meeting, a project, a season, a new goal. And for coaches and leaders, especially, uh so much of our work is very future focused. We're constantly thinking about what's next, the next goalposts, how we improve, where we're headed, and also along the way, like what problems like we have to solve in order for us to help take that next step forward. And in the process, we become so focused on the destination that we stop noticing our path to the destination. We stop noticing the journey. A lookout point is simply a moment where we intentionally pause. It's a chance to step out of the constant cycle of doing that most of us use a disproportionate amount of our lives focused on. It's a chance to take a breath and just reflect. The interesting thing is that when I've worked in team settings and organizational settings, there are oftentimes built-in lookout points. The most common one is the off-season. The off-season is usually the time of the year for teams at different levels where they stop and they audit where they're at, what's working, what's not working. And it's a chance to kind of zoom out and get out of the emotional roller coaster that the in-season experience can be. I've seen this with like team retreats, for example, where uh a coach may take their team uh off site somewhere, go do something away from the field, away from the complex, and spend time together and get to know one another and reflect and whatnot. These are great examples of lookout points that happen already in team settings. One that I've gotten to experience is during my time uh as a full-time employee working in Major League Baseball, one of the things that was really important and a foundational part of our mental performance program is that we would facilitate meditation sessions for players and staff on a very regular basis. And looking back, I think I needed those moments a lot more than the people that I was facilitating them for. Because whether it was for five minutes, a 10-minute session, or whatever it happened to be on that day, it was a permission to pause and to slow down and to notice what's present for you in a given moment. And now that I'm no longer working inside of this environment, I've realized that nobody is going to create those lookout points for me. It's going to be up to me to create those. And if they're going to exist at all, it's on me to create them. And so I think many leaders are facing a similar challenge. So recently I've noticed uh I've had like a string of conversations, I'd say over the last six weeks or so, with a lot of coaches and executives that are in um periods of transition. They're either between jobs, maybe they're considering a career pivot, uh, they're entering kind of a new chapter within leadership, maybe they've been promoted and they're adjusting to a new role. And some are just trying to figure out exactly what's next for them in the direction that their career is moving towards. Now, one of the things that I've noticed in these transitions is for some, they create almost natural lookout points. Transitions are sometimes this like forced opportunity to reflect, to zoom out. It forces us to evaluate where we are, where we've been, and where we're headed. So I've been wondering like, why do we wait for transitions to force us to do something that probably can extend us benefit and value along our journeys? What if we became more intentional about creating lookout points before we desperately need them? I've seen coaches win championships and immediately begin worrying about next season. I've watched leaders achieve goals that they've pursued for years and then barely pause to notice before they move on to the next goalpost. And I've done something similar in my own life multiple times. The good news though is that these lookout points, I don't think that they have to be lengthy. They can be, they don't have to be this like month-long sabbatical. They don't have to be like a retreat out in the wilderness, although if you can, either of those great. I think most lookout points can be really small. It's going out for a walk and not bringing your phone with you or turning on silent and just enjoying some space to be inside of your own head, which I know for many is like a very terrible dark place. It can be kind of a bit of a prison at times for some. But giving ourselves that space can be profoundly important for how to help us show up best in whatever comes next for us. So a lookout point, it can be also driving somewhere without turning on the podcast or music. It can be doing meditation, it can be journaling, it can be sitting outside with a cup of coffee before the day begins. Uh, maybe it's joining a community or a coaching group. So one of my favorite pieces of feedback from participants of my first uh Win More Live Better Leadership Accelerator that I ran a few months ago was that um the biggest takeaways for some wasn't exactly a framework or a tool or strategy that I shared. It was hearing people talk about how the value was simply having dedicated space each week to pause and reflect on themselves. In essence, the program itself was a lookout point, and our weekly and periodic check-ins with one another were spaces for us to slow down, see the view, see where we're at, see what path we're on, and just to ensure that we're kind of moving in the direction that we want to move. So this week, I'd invite all of us to find and create your own lookout point. Give yourself a little bit of time and space to pause, enjoy whatever view is in front of you, and take a moment just to appreciate the journey that you're on. Because too often, when we're not careful, we spend a very disproportionate amount of time racing towards our next destination. And along the way, we forget to enjoy the journey itself.