A.R. Gerber explains sacramental starts and ends to the day, shares his childhood morning ritual of watching Gilligan’s Island, and introduces the simple Cadre Today kickoff phrase that frames community connection.
A.R. gerber: It's really important to have sacramental moments in your day. In the workplace we have those things. Sacramental starts and ends to your day are really important. Here's how we kick off every single Cadre today.
What is a sacrament? A sacrament is an action that we believe that there's magic in outside of the act in itself. Cold and bubbly always tells me that I am okay. Cadre Sphere, decide what those sacramental starts and finishes are to your day.
Just sit right back in your hero tale A tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship mate was a mighty sailor man super brave and sure Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour how long a three hour tour? The weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed if not for the courage of the fearless crew the minnow would be lost would be lost Shore of this deserted desert isle With Gilligan the skipper too the millionaire and his wife hey, the movie star the professor and Marianne here on Gilligan's Isle Pops, we'll hit pause Right there.
R. gerber, how are we doing this morning? I hope you're doing great and everyone else as you show up as well. I have Franklin and Jefferson getting their morning playtime in right behind me. It's always a little bit chaos in this world, isn't it? If we don't see the chaos, we just have to look around the corner and we'll see it. This morning I played you the Gilligan's island theme song and I'll tell you why in a moment. But I'm really glad that you're here. I'm glad that I'm here. I know the things that I know and I care about you.
Those 17 words, I care about you or I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad you're here. I care about you and I know the things I know. That's how we kick off every single Cadre today. And that's the kind of the formula that brings the chemistry that brings all of the Cadre sphere together where we are bringing professionals and peers who risk to say, I know something. I've lived a life and I'm willing to share those things with you with the intent of knowing that there are many ways to being. Well, you guys want to see the chaos going on behind me for a moment?
Hey, Jefferson. Franklin, you're in the Cadre sphere. Franklin's the puppy. He's about four months old. And Jefferson's now the old man. He is. He'll turn 7 later on this year. Our oldest dog, Hamilton, passed away after a icky battle with lots of stuff way too young. He was just 10. But now Jefferson's the old man. But hey, Gilligan's island theme song. And I'm not one who remembers words to songs very easily, but I knew every single word to that song and I probably haven't heard it in, oh, over a decade, at least, maybe 20 years.
Here's the deal. When I was growing up in elementary school, that was the show. And middle school, that was the show that I watched every day before school. That was my sacramental start to the day. I would wake up, I would get ready, and then all of a sudden I'd watch a couple episodes of Gilligan's island before heading off to school. Sacramental starts and ends to your day are really important. And this became really apparent during the pandemic and all the shutdowns and the changes in people's schedules that have been carried on and preceded and surely have postseded.
In this era of working from home or working in remote or hybrid situations, I do a lot of supportive people in the workspace. I'm kind of a coach and a chaplain to go, hey, how do we best do the things that we do? So sometimes I get hired by individuals, but most of the time I get hired by organizations to go, hey, help us help our people. And during COVID HR professionals generalists were saying, our employees don't know how to start or stop. They don't know how to take care of themselves. One of the things that I would instill in organizations is it's really important to have sacramental moments in your day.
Because in the workplace we have those things. We have the shared cup of coffee over the break, we have the walk down the hallway where you see the seven people for one second you go, hey, how are you? Hey, how are ya? And those moments actually train the brain to go, I am in a space where it's now time to do the work. Then the Sacramento moments at the end of the day when we go, alright, we'll see you tomorrow. And we buzz the elevator and we get in the car and we check out at the parking ramp and then we drive home and we listen to the people on the radio we always listen to at the end of the day.
And then we get home and we park the car and we take that exhale, we walk in the door, we go, huh. We put our keys in the bowl, we walk to the kitchen, we grab Mountain Dew, we sit down on the couch, we go, ha. We turn on the tv, we go, huh. All these moments are sacramental. What is a sacrament? A sacrament is an action that we believe that we feel that there's magic in outside of the act in itself. I really like cold, bubbly beverages. I don't need caffeine. I don't need certain calorie or a certain chemical.
No, but I like cold and bubbly. Cold and bubbly always tells me that I am okay. My brain My heart go, ooh. When I have X, then I know that I am okay. I haven't heard the Gilligan's island theme song in at least a decade, if not two decades. And I got some memory issues going on, and yet every single one of those words was still sitting in my soul somewhere. It was a really good start to the day for me today because even though it's been a good 30 years since I was regularly listening to the Gilligan's island theme song, sacrament Never Leaves Us.
So all of a sudden, you find yourself in a changed environment. Like, maybe you lose your job, or maybe your job says, hey, you need to go back to the office. Or he, there is no more office. You need to work from home. And you go, wait. How do I maintain consistency? How do I find the things I need to do the day and the way I do the day? It may be that special cup of coffee, that first one that you have in that special mug. It may be the walk around the block before you open up your laptop. It may be that song that you start listening to every single day before you start doing the things that you do with your days.
But when you go, there is magic in this act. Your body and your brain start believing it. So my invitation for you today, Cadre Sphere, is to decide what those sacramental starts and finishes are to your day. So if I said to you tomorrow, hey, how do you start every single one of your days? You'd know the answer. And if at the end of the day, you go, this is how my brain and my body know that I am no longer doing work, you know the answer to that question as well. So no matter where you are, no matter what's going on today, I hope you're well.
But if you're not, that's okay, too. And no matter what, I hope you know what those things are that help you go, all right, let's do this day for me. For a long time, it was this song. Have a good one. Let's start it from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship the mate was a mighty sailor man Skipper brave and sure.
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