My Eagle Guide

It’s been a challenging week filled with anxiety, self-doubt, and questioning.

Don’t get me wrong, things are actually going pretty well. Two podcasts I’ve been on over the past couple of months were published this week and shared on social to what seemed to be an engaged audience.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be among a large group of marketing leaders to share my predictions and trends for 2021 as part of an article that was written by Helena Ronis, the Co-Founder of AllFactors.

Similar to Seth Godin, I usually don’t make predictions, but what I offered were some of the key strategic things my marketing team and I are focused on this year.

That was published and distributed this week.

As a result, the LinkedIn connection requests and Twitter followers I have received this week have mostly been from my target audience, not just a bunch of randos and salespeople.

I’ve been struggling with getting technology to work correctly and that has really pissed me off. When you already feel overwhelmed and behind with things, there’s nothing worse than technology that usually works just fine deciding it wasn’t going to cooperate. And it went beyond the on-again/off-again relationship between my MacBook and printer.

However, it all changed yesterday as I was headed back to my coworking office after eating lunch at home.

I live on the Washington/Idaho state line, near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains that start to pop up in Northern Idaho. A beautiful area nestled between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

As I pulled out of my driveway, a Bald Eagle flew very low over my car. If you’ve never seen one in the wild, they’re beautiful, very large birds. You’ll know right away why they were chosen to be a symbol of our country, the United States.

Anyway, as I was driving, it was flying alongside me, albeit starting to drift away.

I turned right at a stop sign and it changed its direction and was still beside me.

It practically followed me my entire drive to my office. At one point, as I was held up at another stop sign, it began circling directly above the street I was turning onto. I ended up driving directly under it right before I turned into my office parking lot.

Now, I realize this eagle was not following me, nor was it waiting for me as it circled.

But, its behavior was enough to make me think about how grateful I truly am. Grateful to be healthy. Grateful to live in such a beautiful place. Grateful for all that I have. Grateful for my friends and the people I know. Grateful that I have a job during such a tumultuous time. Grateful for all of the remarkable people I’ve met through the various Akimbo workshops who I now consider friends. Grateful for my wife. Tremendously grateful for my two sons, especially given my wife and I endured 8 or 9 miscarriages- too many to count.

At that moment, I was able to become grounded in the present. To realize how fortunate I am.

Later that evening, as I was laying in bed, I came across Scott Perry’s Creative on Purpose Instagram post that further affirmed I was headed in the right direction professionally:

That was kind of the mic drop I needed for the day. I shut my phone down and pretended to be asleep. Within about five minutes, I was no longer pretending.