By Steve Moran

Doesn’t everyone?

If you lived in New York, the first in February that you woke up to a pounding snowstorm (something we never have here in Sacramento) everything except essential services that shut down. It would mean bored kids and profound restlessness.

The first response is to just hunker down and get through it by working harder with fewer distractions. But, in truth, maybe when this happens you need to take a “Snow Day” and go play.

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Learning from Kids

I did most of my growing up in the town of Paradise, California; a place made famous a couple of years ago by the devastating Camp Fire that wiped out nearly every home and business. It sits at an elevation of 2,000 feet, which means that every year or two we would get enough snow to shut down the entire town, including often wiping the electrical service for a few days.  

Parents hated it because it meant kids at home and either missing work or having to put chains on the car to get to town (a time when 4 wheel drive vehicles were rare and designed more for romping through the wilderness).

But for us kids, it was different. It meant opening our mouths as wide as we could then turning our faces to the sky to catch a snowflake, snow angels (did anyone ever figure out how to actually do one that looked decent?), building snow forts, snowmen, snowball fights, and when we got older, spinning out in our cars, just for fun.

The Truth

While not often, because it would not even be special, we all need a snow day once in a while. A day where we cancel everything and go play in the snow, whatever your version of that is.

And this is true even if you love your job, love going to work every day.

It Is So Easy

. . . to not do this.

But, if you do, it will make you a better leader. You will make better decisions, you will have more compassion for your teams, and you will create amazing memories.

What would you do with a snow day?

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