Margins…

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I learn the most profound lessons when I’m not really looking for, or to honest even wanting to learn them.  For those of you with kids this will ring true no matter how young or old they are.

Kids are a daily learning experience for the parent.

For those that know me, it’s no secret I love baseball. As a father of two boys I want my kids to like sports, but I want my kids to love baseball. I want my kids to have a favorite team, as long as it’s the Redsox! So far it’s working, well one of them loves the hotdogs more than baseball, but what’s a trip to the park without a dog?

"E"man (4 years ago) @ Safeco

I love my boys, I’ve talked about this a little here before but I coach my oldest son’s Little League team. We’re currently wrapping the season up and playing this Friday in the Semi-Finals of the City Tournament attempting to re-peat as champs. Before last night’s game I was pretty excited about the season coming to an end and getting back to some sense of a normal home life. Then watching my son play last night really stirred some mixed emotions. He’s grown so much, last season his first 6 at bats all ended with him striking out. He ended the year doing pretty well hitting .330 with a couple doubles. This year it’s been completely different  leading the team in extra base hits with 2 triples, 6 doubles and finishing 2nd in batting avg by hitting  .480. To top it off he’s been nominated to try-out for the City All-star team. I had no idea what those mixed emotions were until I read this post from Pete Wilson this morning.

Margin Is Essential

Monday morning I was heading in for a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting and for whatever reason I actually left the house early. The breakfast place I was headed to is exactly 15 minutes from my house so I knew I had to leave at 6:45 to make it on time, however, I remember sitting down in my truck, looking up at the clock and seeing that it was only 6:39 a.m.

Just a few minutes from my destination I noticed a middle aged man in a maroon Honda Accord who was trying to pull out of the gas station into my lane of heavy morning traffic. I had plenty of time left to get to my appointment, so without hesitation I put my brakes on and let him out.

As he pulled out and waved the thought crossed my mind…

Margin is essential for the unexpected!

I tend to plan my schedule and my budgets based on perfect scenarios. The problem with that is obvious. Rarely are there perfect scenarios. In other words I have no margins.

A margin is something allowed, or reserved, for that which can not be foreseen or known with certainty.

If I had left right “on time”  I probably would have been so focused on where I was going that I would have totally missed the opportunity to let him out. Even if I did see him I’m not sure I would have taken the time to stop. Now it doesn’t sound like a really big deal, right? I mean, it’s just let a car pull out in front of me. However, this principle plays itself out in almost every area of my life and has huge implications.

I’m afraid margin is something that is missing way too often in my life these days.

My lack of margin impacts…

How generous I am with my money.

How generous I am with my time.

How I lead.

How I love.

How is your margin or lack of margin impacting you these days? What one area of your life do you need more margin the most? - Pete Wilson

I guess I didn’t fully realize what I was doing last year when I was asked to help coach my son’s team. Now as the season is wrapping up I’m starting to recognize & ask myself the same question that is in Pete’s post:

What opportunities are we missing by not having intentional margins in our lives?

Those mixed emotions are pretty obvious today. If I would have chosen to just drop him off at practice and pick him up when it was over I would have missed the fist pump last night as he tagged the runner out trying to steal third. I would have missed getting yelled at by the umpire for hugging him at third base after his first triple. I would have missed the good conversations we’ve had about disappointment and sportsmanship. In essence the list could continue, but today the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that;

“Margin gave me something unexpected. Margin took me from just being there, to being involved…”