Leader: There's a new horizon for you.

Misogi- A personal challenge focused on confronting fears & weaknesses.?

Misogi is?a Japanese word that means "purification" and refers to both a traditional Shinto ritual and a modern challenge:?

Traditional ritual: A Shinto purification ritual that involves cleansing the body and mind in cold water.?The ritual may take place in a pond or under a waterfall, and is often accompanied by prayers, fasting, and a pilgrimage.?

Modern challenge: A personal challenge that involves pushing oneself to the limit to confront fears, doubts, and weaknesses.?

The goal is to transform oneself and embrace a new, more powerful version of oneself.?

In 2023, I read “The Comfort Crisis” by Michael Easter , and “Outlive” by Peter Attia . I also re-read “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. All of these works, in different ways, married well with the management and organizational psychology reads that I had been assigned for my Master’s program. These texts generated a lot of new thinking for me in 2024.

I have been a business owner now for nearly eighteen years. I started my firm in 2007, when I was twenty two. One of the ways I made it through those first few years was blissful ignorance.? As an advisor, I knew what I needed to do. But as a manager of people, I was completely lost. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know how to hire, pay, manage, organize….but I thought it would somehow be “common knowledge.” I was winging it. Somehow, it worked out. Today, I would say we are in about the fifth iteration of our business model.? We still have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but we’ve been blessed with a much finer and more intentional composition than we once had. In many ways, we are just getting started.

One of my core leadership realizations of the past few years: If you want to grow your business, you must endeavor to fundamentally change yourself - personally. In retrospect to my twenties, I can see that the moments that my business took a leap aligned with some sort of serious challenge.? These challenges always gave me a fork in the road: either choose a path of intense refinement, or go back to the death knell of “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

A few years ago, I scheduled an excursion in the Yukon that was to occur this year - August of 2024. In order to accomplish it, I had to spend a year physically training.? My research promised the event would be brutal— high elevations, steep climbs, and constant exposure to the elements. It was my Misogi. Leading up to the event, I was extremely focused on my personal health, strength, and endurance. I did this alongside my normal ambitious business goals for the year.?

I’ve been absolutely stunned at what this event, and the momentum of my physical health, have done for my productivity and focus. I have discovered energy, creativity, and confidences that I did not know I had. I have never had so much enthusiasm about the future, and I have never had this much excitement about helping our clients WIN.?

I still have much to do and a lot of lessons to learn. I have not “made it.” We are just scratching the surface.

But I did learn one leadership lesson in 2024:

If I want my business to have a brighter future, it’s got to start with ME.