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Good morning,

Humble confession: a few months back I got caught speeding out in the middle of nowhere Indiana. 😬

I honestly don’t know exactly how fast I was going because I was in a rental car and the speedometer was placed terribly. I couldn’t see the speedometer from my natural seated position.

Not making an excuse. That was a fact. 😂

But the truth is that I know I was rushing. I wasn’t racing by any means, but in my head I had decided I needed to get to the airport quickly so that I could make my flight that evening.

In my right mind I can acknowledge speeding is one of those faux outcomes that doesn’t really make that big of a difference, but in the moment I wasn’t thinking about that. I just wanted to get to the airport quickly.

WHAT'S THE DESIRED OUTCOME?

This is where I’m a bit embarrassed because the amount of time I was going to save by speeding approximately 10 mph over the speed limit was at most ten minutes. (Now if I was really pushing it maybe more, but that wasn’t the case here.)

Ten minutes was not going to make or break me getting on my flight.

In retrospect, this is what that means to me: I was willing to risk safety of myself and others, getting a ticket, and have my insurance go up for the sake of saving a handful of minutes that did not actually matter?

Yikes.

I could have used the consultant or friend version of me asking this question: “What are you really trying to accomplish?”

Because if somebody would have asked me that (or if I would have asked myself) - I would have easily answered: I want to safely make it to the airport with enough time to make my flight.

Guess what? Driving the speed limit was a great option to do just that. 🫠

PAUSING FOR CAREFUL THOUGHT

The book of Proverbs in the Bible is full of wisdom. And in Chapter 4, there’s a simple call to action that could be applied in these types of situations:

Careful thought requires a pause.

Sometimes that pause can be quick. In my situation with speeding it could have literally been a few seconds. And sometimes the pause needs to be longer in order to truly gain wisdom.

What I’ve found in my own life is that the times when - I accomplish something that isn’t ultimately very important or I lose at something that is actually important - could have had better outcomes if I would have paused to give careful thought before I started.

Thankfully for me on the day I was speeding, I got lucky.

The officer was kind, gave me a warning, and I made it to the airport about an hour before my departure time. But it all could have gone so differently - and pausing before I started driving would have removed all the downside risk.

WORTHY WINS REQUIRE A PAUSE

It’s the same in our lives - there’s a lot of elements in our own control that can go wrong if we don’t pause to get clear about what really matters. Or we can take the time for a pause - short or long - to seek wisdom and get clear about what is worthy.

If you’re looking for Worthy Wins right now, I believe these two simple questions can be an encouragement to you if you’ll pause to ask them:

• What am I specifically trying to accomplish with this (business / project / moment / relationship / activity)?
• What is the best plan to do so?

In a world that is moving a million miles a minute, those two questions can be a crutch to help you actually end up winning in the places that matter most.

Cheering you on!

JO

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{Saint Augustine, FL 32080}