What a Benson Boone Concert Taught Me About Intentional Living

Elliott: last week the family and I went to a Benson Boone concert. it was a birthday gift to our youngest daughter, we just grab a couple of, last minute cheap tickets and Enjoy the show with right? And yeah, Benson Boone. I'm not he's got a he's got good songs. I I'm not this isn't this isn't the concert I would normally seek out. I will say it was a good time. And we get in there and we get to our seats, which are different than when the where the girls' seats are. like any first responder or first responder profession, right? I immediately start doing the assessment, which I didn't even realize I was doing it, but you know, you where are the exits, where security? Most of the crowds, like, I don't know, teenage demographic and their parents, my wife will be watching the show and I'm like, analyzing everything around me. looking for, the array of speakers that I I was hanging up above, the cables that hold that up. I'm like, well, geez, I'm glad that speaker array is not above us. Not feeling great about general admission, but we're good. that's just one of the one of those things. and this guy, Benson Boone, by the way, not that the this podcast isn't about, this concert or Benson Boone, but I gotta say, the guy is such a showman. I mean, he works the crowd. you see pictures of him and stuff like that with those abs. And I was like, Yeah, that Photoshop, from where I was sitting, they looked real. It looked legit. such a showman, like I said, working the crowd, going around. At one point, I was kind of, I was kind of worried for the guy. somebody hands him a hat from the crowd. He throws that thing on. Somebody, passes him some sunglasses. There he is on like the Jumbotron with the glasses on, singing his heart out, And all that I can think is: I hope that in his med kit backstage, that he's got like that little comb for lice. or eye drops for Pink Eye because he's just grabbing shit from the crowd and throwing it on. Which the crowd is going nuts, but again, this is this is where my mind goes. somewhere in the middle of the concert, I realized that I wasn't listening to the music, but I was watching the performer. And the music was very good. And truly, the concert was was one of those things that you're like, wow, that was way better than I than I personally expected it. It was a packed house, so everybody else knew what they were getting into. Mot not me so much. So but I just kept watching how comfortable this guy looked on stage. His timing, boom, precise. Confidence. Dude was doing backflips like Spider-Man. And everything that he did looked Completely effortless. And I found myself saying Dude's talented. that's where my head started going deep. Obviously talent has something to do with it. I realize, I was really watching preparation. It was discipline. It was thousands of decisions that nobody got to see. nobody wakes up and accidentally becomes talented. you don't just wake up and say, today I'm good at something. So so that's what really, piqued my interest was as I'm having a conversation with myself at the TD Garden. then of course I turn it internal. How much of my own life is intentional? how much of it is just me reacting to whatever it is that shows up along the day? It's because it's funny, and I'm definitely guilty of this. If you ask somebody how they're doing, doing great, busy. I say it all the time. And you probably say it too. Busy. I think busy has become a catch-all explanation for why we don't do the things we actually want to do. For me, I wanna read more. I'm busy. Gotta get back in the gym. Busy. Sometimes it's true. Things do actually get busy. Just thinking if busy sometimes is just another way of saying Something else or someone else got my attention today. I got derailed. somehow I always find time for the things that demand my attention, emails, problems, all that stuff. things I like I've said before, interruptions, I could call them. Scrolling on my phone far longer, talk about a waste of time. it's funny how those things always seem to fit in the schedule. And the things that matter long term. I'd do it tomorrow. I'm busy. we have to be reactive. We get rewarded for that. we have to. People call, they need help. We react. we don't get to say to somebody, geez, you need us? Well All right, great, I'll be right with you, I'll circle back with you. We don't we don't get to do that. And we get a call and then the next one and the next one and and it's you know the same thing. If we're not careful, we can start to live our lives that way as well. Everything will become reactive. And I kept having this thought this week of, we have to be designers and truly design what we want our lives to look like. But we stop designing and we respond. And the other day somebody shared an idea with me it's about creating containers, almost like appointments with yourself. Not everything in life can be perfectly scheduled, but if we don't intentionally protect time for things that matter, then something or someone will take it away. And when I think about that, I think that it's true for almost everything. No one accidentally builds a strong marriage. No one accidentally just stays healthy. certainly, no one accidentally becomes a great leader. These things happen because somebody kept making decisions long before anyone else noticed the results. And that's what I kept thinking about at the concert. Everyone saw that performance. Nobody saw that. thousands of ordinary days that made that performance possible. that's that's been on my mind all week. not how do we become less busy, because I know that ain't realistic. Life is busy. Especially if you're raising a family, working multiple jobs, actually trying to take care of yourself. So I'm not sure that less busy is the proper goal, but the goal should maybe be being more intentional or just paying attention. maybe asking myself, how much of today did I actually choose? And how much of today just kind of happened to me? Even did I allow happened to me. I have a feeling that those little decisions, reading a few extra pages, taking that rocker walk. Getting that workout in, spending real time with your family. They probably don't feel all that significant in the moment. And of course, for Benson Boone, neither does practicing backflips in an empty gym. Until you do it so much that everybody calls it talent. And maybe we live our lives the same way. I don't know. It's just something that I took away from the concert. And that I've been reflecting on. Stay safe.