Your Inner GPS

Hello. Hello. Cadre Suhere. Hi. Hi. Hi. Come on in. Welcome. Give folks just a minute to settle in. We got quite a bit of snow here in Minnesota, so I feel like everything's a little bit delayed with the cleanup. I was just in St. Paul and the roads, the side roads are just a hot mess. They are in desperate need of some plows to come through. So. And I. A lot of those cars are just covered and probably not moving for a while. So we are in cleanup mode. Cleanup, snow mode. I think it's actually kind of still snowing.

I got up this morning. Good morning. Morning. Is it morning? No, it's not morning anymore. Hello. Speak Wonder. It's fun. It has been a morning. I got up this morning and shoveled and I. I was just telling a co worker of mine, I live on a street with a school on it. So we get the plow going by quite a bit, and it sure does pile up at the end of the driveway. So my. My legs are tired, my arms are tired, my back is tired. I'm in the office right now. I took a trek into St. Paul and then now I'm in Bloomington, Minnesota.

So, anywho, welcome. Happy to have you all here today. And I know, like I said, some folks are still kind of trickling in, but today's a day that I was thinking about. The reason that I scheduled this or that I thought about this was my husband and I were having a conversation about way back in day. So my husband is a. Is a owner, operator of a tile business. But back in the day, he used to work, of course, for other contractors or other tile businesses. And we used to sit down. Hello. From Erie, Pennsylvania.

Yes, you are also having what we are having, although I feel like you might be getting it a little bit worse than us in Erie, Pennsylvania. I could be wrong, but I feel like that's the direction ours was headed. So anyway, back in the day, my husband and I at night, used to sit down and he would get an address, and the address would be for the next job that he was going on the next day. And so he had this little book, this little map book, and it had all of the streets, kind of maps of the city and the streets and whatnot within that little book.

And it was very fine print. Right. Which is probably why I need my glasses now. But we have to sit down and have to map right hand, write directions on a piece of paper to make sure he could get to where he was going the next day. And a lot of times it was New developments. It was developments that were like, you know, just fresh and hadn't been put in that little map book quite yet, or new streets. And so we used to have to sit and just write down the directions that he was to take the next day for the job that he was going to.

And now it's as simple as plugging it into Google Maps or whatever wayfinding app you use, right? So you just plug in the address, make sure it's right, and it takes you right there and it tells you. In fact, I used it this morning when I was going into St. Paul to pick up some stuff. And it, you know, tells you exactly where to go, exactly when to turn. Gives you, you know, a little bit of a notice of when you're going to be turning so you can get ready for it. And that got me to thinking about, if only we had that, our inner gps, our inner wayfinding system, right?

The thing that is in. In us, that we plug it in and we say, take me to peace. And it just says, go left, breathe in, sit down, go for a walk, whatever the directions are to take you to that thing. And it's kind of amazing to think about that. And the thing that. That. That did for me was it also brought me to this feeling of. And I've been trying to do this so hard for so long, and I practice it, and I practice it, and I practice it, as we all do when we're trying to do something new or something that we know is gonna benefit ourselves.

And it's this thing of being fully present. And we've talked about this. You've heard me talk about pausing with purpose and doing things with purpose. And being fully present is also just that. It's really thinking about being present in everything that I do, whether that is a conversation that I'm having, whether that is a workout that I'm doing, whether that is a show that I'm watching, whatever that is. There's so much hustle and bustle this time of year. And it's really hard. It's really hard to, you know, be fully present in every single moment you're running around.

You gotta gather gifts for your loved ones. You gotta make sure the menu is right. You gotta get the right food. You have to prepare it. You got to prepare your house right. If you're having guests, like, there's so much running around, and we are just constantly on the move, and it's really hard sometimes to just stop and look. The cashier that's checking you out at the Grocery store in the eyes and say, how are you today? And be fully present in that moment. Right. And really treat that human as if they are human.

Yeah. Emotional coordinates. Love that. I would love to read that. I will have to see if I can find that, because that is. I would love if you would share that, actually, because that's exactly what this is. Right? It's really thinking about being fully present, stopping for a minute, thinking about the things, the moments that you're in, the things that you're doing, maybe even the reason or the purpose that you're doing them. Like I said, this time of year, it's just there's so much going on and we're running around.

Even this morning when I was shoveling, I was thinking about how nice it was to be able to get outside. I hated every minute of lifting snow, but I felt really good about being outside and doing something productive. You know, I got to watch the school buses of kids go by. And I think, you know, when you are fully present, you realize that there's a lot of little teeny, small moments that we miss every single day. So thinking about, like, the things that maybe this year you learned, like a characteristic about yourself or a new food that you love or a new restaurant that you were really excited to visit, and you learned those things, right, about yourself and about the outside world as well.

And I was even thinking about the other day, the playlist, Spotify age thing, the whatever that is, it tells you what age, based on the playlist on Spotify. It tells you what age your. Your listening age is. And I was thinking about maybe that's something you learned, right? Your listening age is older, way younger, or spot on to where you are in your. In your age group. But it's. There's so many different things that we learn about ourselves, and we often aren't fully present enough to appreciate them, to listen to them, to see them, to hear them, to feel them, whatever it might be.

So I've actually really learned a lot about myself this year. It's been a really tough year for me. This is probably the hardest, hardest year I've had in my 40s yet. And, you know, many of you know that last December our company shut down, and it was like, hands down, 100% my favorite job in the whole world. So we dealt with that this year. We dealt with, you know, financial struggles, being laid off, being without a job, living on one income, as many, many folks do. When you. When you have two people working and one lose a job, my mom and her health scares and helping her heal and helping my dad caregive.

And, you know, I had ups and downs with my sibling. And so there's. It's just been kind of a year where I'm like, okay, 2026, there's nothing that's gonna go wrong. Everything happened this year, so nothing can happen next year. But I know that's not the truth, and that's okay, because I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned a lot about the people around me. I've learned a lot about the people that I need in my life, the things that I want to take into 2026. I feel more resilient.

I feel stronger this year. I feel kinder this year because I feel like I've got a good understanding for a variety of different. Different things that maybe I never experienced before or wasn't fully present enough to experience. So, yeah, so that's what I was thinking about. It goes all the way back to handwriting directions on a sheet of paper because there was no Google Maps, to thinking about if we had a Google Maps or wayfinding for our inner selves, what would we ask it or where would we ask it to take us to?

That's kind of a tough question, right? Depends on the day, I suppose. Yeah, Think about that. Contemplate that. Where would you direct that map to find within you? Take care, Cadre sphere. You know, I love ya. Be well and plug in that address, that inner GPS and see where it takes ya. Y' all have a fantastic day. I'll see you next week at the exact same time, 12:30 on Wednesday, hopefully.