New Wipes | Face Mask Sale | Consequences of a Lack of Self-Control
Happy Monday!
Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.
This weekend I got a nice long walk that I didn’t expect, didn’t want, but that was my decision. My wife and I were driving down the road, and as couples sometimes do, we started arguing about something … I don’t even remember what. I said something to the effect of “I feel the overwhelming urge to pull over and get out” which was a way to say “I can’t take any more”, to which she responded, “whatever you feel you need to do”. Out the car I went (after stopping of course).
That’ll show her!
Just how far from home am I anyway? 8 Miles! Well whatever… it’s exercise. How long does it take an out of shape cripple to walk 8 miles up and down hills in the burning afternoon sun? Four. Four hours is what it takes. The last time I intentionally walked on the treadmill was for 20 minutes and I tore my Achilles’ tendon. No joke. What’s wrong with me?
I’m very strong willed. Like you’ve probably not met anyone quite as strong willed as me strong willed. When I decide I am going to do something I almost always do it, now, and with high speed and high energy. So the moment I opened that car door I had just committed to walking 8 miles in the heat. I had two people attempt to pick me up pretty early and I politely declined. I felt that I’d committed to walking home and by golly that’s what I was going to do.
At almost an hour in I thought this is tough, maybe I’ll Uber. None available .. ever. Fine, never mind, I need to walk this anyway. Another hour in I thought ok, if someone stops again I guess I’ll take the ride. There’s no way I’m going to hold up this long with my bum leg, bad back, being out of shape, the heat, no water, etc. No one ever stopped again.
Now what? I wasn’t about to stick my thumb out. Pride perhaps. More likely I probably wanted the badge of having walked 8 miles in the heat. That’s pride too. Truthfully, I didn’t feel like talking to anyone or explaining anything, and I really wanted time to myself to think.
I’ll stick my thumb out if I get in trouble I thought … too thirsty/dehydrated, limping to the point of pain, etc. I also remembered halfway through the walk that I had JUST gone to the doctor Friday to make a plan for dealing with my extreme Anemia. He tested me and said he might call over the weekend when he gets the results if the iron is too low and have me go to the ER for a transfusion. Oh great – let me see if I can consume more oxygen out here than my body can carry to my cells. Maybe it’ll be an ambulance that picks me up.
That’ll show her? No, that’ll show me.
What happened? How did I get into this situation? There’s nothing like good thinking time to answer such a question. Usually you set time aside intentionally. Some of us thrust ourselves into it. Either way, time to yourself with no distractions can be amazing for the mind and soul. After this time to myself I learned some things. Here are some of them:
Control your emotions / Don’t respond quickly. When someone acts or responds in a way you don’t expect you don’t necessarily have to have a reaction. Or, at least not an instant or emotional one. Many times easier said than done, but this can be worked on and improved – and I believe is a super important skill to learn and master. If I’d had more self-control in the moment I wouldn’t have gotten myself into that situation. Maybe I would have turned around and driven home, or maybe I would have more calmly talked through things.
I’m fairly good with this practice in business – I’ve had situations where someone acted or responded in a way that was unexpected, and I was calm to let them get it out while at the same time looking for clues or thinking back on their recent words or behaviors to try to understand what was going on. Then, I sometimes respond with “this isn’t like you, what changed, or where is this coming from”, etc. Usually if you’ll allow time for a conversation, and be interested in what’s going on with them (what I call “seek to understand”), you’ll both get to the bottom of it. Sometimes people don’t even know what’s wrong themselves and just need to talk it out.
It’s harder to do in a marriage. It’s a lot easier to respond quickly, cut one another off mid-sentence, and say or do things that inflame the situation. Can you imagine if you talked or acted like that at work? You’d be fired pretty quick. So why do we allow that to happen in our marriage or close relationships? I have some ideas – but not yet the answers. If you have insights, please share them!
Start with the end in mind – Just because you’re standing where you’re standing doesn’t mean the next move has to be one step from that position in what may seem like a logical direction. That’s incrementalism. What is the desired END result? Maybe you got off course somewhere, and if you keep making incremental decisions without revisiting the desired destination or end result some of them will be bad decisions that continue you down a wrong path.
I thought all sorts of “next step” thoughts in the first part of the walk. What would I do when I made it home? They were all negative and I am sure would have made matters worse.
Then it hit me to PRAY. The best thing we can do when we are not thinking right is to ask the Lord to realign our thinking. “Father, I need you. Order my thoughts, calm me down, and help me see what you would have me do“.
I instantly realized that the things I had been thinking would NOT take me in a direction that was toward the end goal. The goal for me is for us to have a happy and healthy marriage that glorifies the Lord and teaches our girls how a marriage should work.
That’s when “start with the end in mind” came to me. Do I want to have an awful relationship? No, of course not. So then why take steps, even tiny ones, that lead me into that direction? That doesn’t make sense. That’s when the concept of not making incremental decisions came to mind.
Don’t think “what’s next”, think “where to”. Know your end goal and control your emotions. When thinking about or making decisions, check yo self before you wreck yo self and make sure the thought or decision will take you CLOSER to the goal and not further from it. Sometimes you have to reevaluate your thinking and make sure you are still on target, or change course if not. Sometimes you have to rewind and start again. Apologizing is not incremental – it’s a reset. It’s part of getting back on course to the destination.
In case you’re wondering, we are just fine. You may remember that I said last week concerning our birthdays “Yes, we are just 5 days apart, both Leo’s, and are always bickering about something. It must be fun to watch. Haha”. We get over and laugh about things pretty easily. We actually had a good conversation that evening, talked it out, and were right back to normal. Now we both plan to practice self-control and keep getting better.
How are you at controlling your emotions and responding more slowly? What about making decisions with the end in mind? I personally think I have a LOT of noodling and doodling to do on that subject about a lot of areas of life! How do I want things to END UP in most or all areas of life? That should be the guiding light to the way I make decisions daily.
Today’s Product Spotlight from Rerun (AKA Rebecca):
Happy Monday everyone! How about a sale product to start the week!? We currently have our WS-C3750X-48T-E switches on sale for $470! These Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series switches are phenomenal for maximizing productivity! They feature (48) Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as (1) network module slot. They are also stackable up to 9 units! These switches come with IP Services software and feature Power Over Ethernet (PoE)! Check out our product page to see our offering of compatible accessories, power supplies, stack cables, and more!
From Joe, our friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer:
Another week, another new product! With the progressive wipes almost out of stock, we have a very similar product for you guys. MagiCare Disinfecting Wipes are officially here and live on the site! This 50 pack of wipes come in a resealable pouch and are made with 75% alcohol. They’re perfect for all your everyday surfaces that require frequent disinfecting. The demand for wipes right now is crazy so who knows how long they’ll last!
I also have another very exciting piece of news for you guys! This week only we will have our Bulk pack of 3-ply masks on sale! Whether it be for your staff, students, or an event these are a perfect alternative to the more expensive masks. They come at a much cheaper price while maintaining a Bacterial Filtration efficiency of 95%. This is the perfect opportunity to stock up so don’t miss out!
We’re Hiring! We have an opening, as detailed by Rerun (AKA Rebecca), below. Is this you or someone you know?
Product Marketing Specialist – Fiber Cables
Have you been reading these CEO emails thinking “Wow, CK sure sounds like a fun place to work! Wish I could be a part of the team and contribute to the CEO daily email like Joe the friendly Safety Supplies Product Marketer does!”? Do you love product marketing? Do you revel in the recurring nature of processes and relish accountability? If so, listen up! We are looking to expand our Product Team by bringing on a Product Marketer for Fiber Cables. This is a very process driven role in which the goal is to grow Gross Profit $ and increase inventory effectiveness by effectively marketing the products. We are looking for someone who is exactly like Joe… err… I mean, we are looking for someone who is hard-working, dedicated, diligent, organized, analytical, a great written communicator, and has a GREAT attitude and “can do” spirit! If you are still intrigued, please review the job post (and pay extra attention to the part about the CK Way – We take culture seriously here and are looking for team members who truly “fit”). If you think you do fit and are interested in the position, please send us your resume at [email protected] along with a written note telling us the character attributes, values, and interests that describe you and influence how you approach life and work. Who knows, you could be our next friendly Product Marketer!
I hope you are enjoying these emails. If you are, I appreciate it when you let me know! If not, or if you have ideas for how to improve, by all means, please let me know! Sometimes I “can’t see the forest for the trees”.
As always, please let me know how I can be of service to you. If you need assistance with something, advice, or even if you just need someone to pray for you, I am here and listening.
Blessings,
Craig Haynie – CEO
CablesAndKits
P.S. Don’t forget to go follow us on Facebook here: CK Facebook Page.
Main Safety Supplies Landing Page: https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies
COVID-19 / Business News for Today:
- Right at 23,616,000 cases worldwide, with 16,105,300 people who have recovered, with 813,000 deaths AND 5,875,100 cases in the US with over 3,167,200 people have recovered, with 180,600 deaths.
- The Food and Drug Administration made the decision to give emergency authorization for convalescent plasma as a treatment for novel coronavirus patients — touted as a historic breakthrough by President Trump on Sunday.
- Two tropical storms, possible hurricanes, threaten to complicate the coronavirus response in the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, Northern California residents struggle to safely evacuate as wildfires rage.
- New Zealand and South Korea imposed more restrictions on Monday. New Zealand extended lockdown measures in its largest city, Auckland, and said masks would become mandatory on public transportation across the country. The South Korean capital of Seoul ordered residents to wear masks in public.
- The University of North Carolina has cleared the football team and several other athletic squads to resume practice after suspending activities because of a number of coronavirus clusters on campus. In addition to football, men’s and women’s basketball, cross-country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball were to resume activities Sunday, the school announced Saturday. The football team will return to practice Monday. All other sports teams are on pause for now.
- The NFL had 77 positive COVID-19 tests from 11 teams re-examined by a New Jersey lab after false positives, and all those tests came back negative. The league asked the New Jersey lab BioReference to investigate the results, and those 77 tests are being re-tested once more to make sure they were false positives.
