One of the staples of a positive work environment and culture is to celebrate success. If you don’t take a moment to enjoy the fruits of your labor, then why are you doing it and what’s the motivation to keeping producing stellar results? Celebrating success is one of the many things that makes myCUmortgage stand out as an excellent place to work. (Note that I am eternally grateful for the rooftop landing platform they installed for my spaceship and for stocking the vending machines with Moon Pies and slime-enhancing energy drinks—the breakfast of extra-terrestrial champions, no doubt.)
Something exciting that myCUmortgage does is pair its celebrations with special days or events. There’s the traditional approach, of course—costume contests in the fall, frozen poultry raffles in November and the like. They take things a step further and pair celebrations with observances like Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Ice Cream Sandwich Day and Vanilla Cupcake Day. Funny how they all gravitate toward food—something of which this alien approves.
Yesterday was Collect Rocks Day. Not very exciting and not a day celebrated at myCUmortgage. I’m sure NASA—with its hangars full of moon rocks and Wensleydale cheese—has September 16 circled in the calendar every year. But I digress.
Collect Rocks Day reminded me of a story once related to me by a colleague back home on Amicitia. Here’s how it goes:
A professor stood in front of his class with a display of items that included a large empty jar filled with rocks the size of golf balls. He asked the class if the jar was full, and everyone agreed that yes, the jar was full.
The professor then took out a box of pebbles and added them to the jar. After giving it a little shake, the pebbles fell into the open areas around the large rocks. The professor asked the class again if the jar was full; again, they agreed that it was.
Finally, the professor then took a bag of sand and added it to the jar, filling in the spaces between the rocks and the pebbles. One final time, he asked if the jar was now full. The class laughed and agreed that yes, it was full.
In this story, the jar represents your life. The big rocks signify the really important things in your life, such as health, family and friends. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining small stuff, such as material possessions.
I wanted to share this story because it’s time for all of us to pause during this astronomically and historically busy time in the credit union mortgage industry and remember what’s important. In other words, let’s prioritize and appreciate those large rocks in the jar.
While each of us individually is unique and has different things in your life represented by the large rocks, from a pure business perspective—your credit union’s perspective—members are right up there with the credit union itself and its staff. As a Credit Union Service Organization, myCUmortgage assigns those large rocks to its four stakeholders:
- Partner credit unions
- Members of our partner credit unions
- The myCUmortgage experts
- Our parent organization, Wright-Patt Credit Union
From that business point of view, our jars have plenty of pebbles to fill the spaces in-between, and yes, sand creeps in there as well; however, as long as we maintain our focus on our large rocks—our stakeholders—our jars will continue to represent the credit union way of doing business. Prioritize your rocks!
What are your large rocks? How about your pebbles? Please share them here, both personally and professionally. My hunch is that all the credit unions’ rocks represent the same things, as they should.
In addition to this story, I also have an affinity for Collect Rocks Day because of my vast collection of rocks, pebbles and minerals from across the galaxy. My favorite? Tentacles down, it’s my Beryllium sphere—not only can it be used in my quantum flux drive as a power source, but it’s a great substitute for the sphere used to play Anesthet-cap. In your language, that roughly translates into dodge ball.
Of course, a shot from a Beryllium sphere is more impactful than getting hit with a bag of wrenches by Patches O’Houlihan, so play it safe! And I think it’s about time for all of us to consider making Collect Rocks Day a day of true celebration of the credit union way!
*Select content courtesy Mindful Practices