Tuesday, June 10, 2025

I was in Florida recently, attending a conference at a resort with one of those wave machines — the kind where people can hop on a small board and try their hand at surfing without the ocean.

Most people treated it like a game. A laugh. They’d wipe out gloriously, bounce back up grinning, and race to the back of the line like kids on a waterslide. They weren’t trying to master surfing; they were just doing something fun and out of the ordinary on vacation.

But one person caught my attention.

He wasn’t playing. He was studying.

He listened carefully to the attendant. He paid close attention to the timing of his release from the dock, adjusting over and over until he could enter the flow without immediately tumbling. Then he worked on standing. Just that. When he had that down, he started trying to control his movements on the board. Steering. Balancing. Repositioning. Releasing. Repeating.

Same machine. Same waves. But he was playing a different game than everyone else that day.

And it got me thinking, life is often like that. Work is too.

Two people can show up to the same meeting, do the same job, or be given the same opportunity—but what they do with it can look entirely different. For one person, it’s a task to check off. For another, it’s a challenge to master. Some people are at the wave machine for amusement. Others are studying their footing, refining their approach.

There’s no shame in either. There’s a time and place for fun. Your definition of the appropriate time and place might look very different than someone else’s.  Also, many things we do each day don’t require much more focus or flourish beyond merely completing them.

But it’s helpful to remember — not everyone is there for the same reason, even if it looks like they are. And sometimes, quietly, someone near you is working the waves with a different goal in mind entirely.

Whether we’re thinking about our careers, our relationships, or the mark we want to leave…there’s a question worth asking: am I in it to pass the time, am I in it to show progress, or am I here to master something and make the most of it?

The answer will change your outlook and perspective about your efforts.  The answer should also change your interpretation of the efforts of others.  There is a chance, too, that the answer just might change your approach to almost everything.

Until Next Time,

Mary Schuster
Chief Knowledge Officer
October Research, LLC