Guest Post from Jeff Cutler
The Heritage Golf Tournament takes place this weekend on Hilton Head Island. It’s played at the Harbour Town Golf Links at the Sea Pines Resort this time each year and as I write this they’re wrapping up the fourth day of play.
I’m watching it in high-definition, but the technology has nothing on the clarity with which I recall some of the lessons I learned at that very course.
When I played there 19 years ago, it was to celebrate my father’s 50th birthday. We took the trip together - father and oldest son - effectively leaving my mother, sister and two brothers at home to celebrate our birthdays (oh, my birthday is the day after my father’s) without us.
The lessons I learned that weekend from my father still affect the way I treat friends, colleagues, clients and family. And it wasn’t anything he said to me - like those heartfelt and forced moments in every WE or Lifetime movie.
No, I learned from his actions. In the way he treated others. In the way he conducted himself. In the way he enjoyed my company.
Here’s what I took home with me - along with some souvenir golf balls and some photos...
1 - Be humble. You’ll hear this from luminaries (word stolen from Chris Penn on Marketing Over Coffee) to landscapers. Be humble in how you interact with everyone and don’t adopt airs. Even if you are better than others - smarter, better smelling, more skilled with livestock - there’s no need to rub it in. And when it comes right down to it, we all have our shortcomings. I’m just pleased the video of me snoring in my #yellowrugbyshirt hasn’t been uploaded to YouTube yet. Moments like that keep me humble and centered.
2 - Be in the moment. The trips I’ve taken with my dad are forged in my mind because I spent them focusing on the time we were spending together and not on what else I could be doing. This piece of advice pops up all the time. From @cc_chapman who urges us all to unplug once in a while to our loved ones who stare at us quizzically when we’ve just “got to get out a twitpic of the old fogies at the movie theater”. Pay attention to the people around you and the experiences you’re having. Do it now. Do it always.
3 - Share. Omigod, this is the big one. Call it what you want. Pay it forward, give back, etc. etc. etc. If you have skills, knowledge, money, access, whatever...let others enjoy it with you. If the PowerBall comes in for me, I’m not doing a Scrooge McDuck and sleeping in a vault on my coins. I’m doing some calculated sharing. Take the same approach and the smiles and warmth you get back will be immeasurable.
You’ve hung on this long and are probably wondering how this all ties together. Well, the gift we’re giving my father this year is a book. For his 69th birthday, my sister got all dad’s friends and the entire family to each put on one sheet of paper a description of their best time or feeling they have about my father.
My sheet of paper is about that Harbour Town trip. And the crash course I got in life from my hero...my dad.
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tagged as golf course, jeff cutler, lessons, life, retrospective, thoughtfulness
